Gladys May Casely-Hayford alias Aquah Laluah (11 May 1904 – October 1950) was a Gold Coast-born Sierra Leonean writer.

As a child, known then as Aquah LaLuah, she was a voracious reader, devouring Charles Kingsley's Heroes at the age of seven.

Back home in Africa, she taught at the Girls' Vocational School in Freetown, Sierra Leone, run by her mother, Adelaide Casely-Hayford,[3] specializing in African folklore and literature.

[6] Very aware of her African background, she celebrated her blackness in poems including "Rejoice" and "Nativity".

[5] Poems such as "Nativity" (1927), "The Serving Girl" (1941) and "Creation" (1926), have been widely anthologized; writers from the Harlem Renaissance loved her work.