Mabel Dove Danquah (1905[1] – 1984) was a Gold Coast-born journalist, political activist,[2] and creative writer, one of the earliest women in West Africa to work in these fields.
[10] Mabel received further education in England at Anglican Convent in Bury St. Edmunds and St. Michael's College, Hurstpierpoint,[11] where she took a secretarial course, against the wishes of her father.
[12][13] She was sent back to Freetown, and while there she helped set up a women's cricket club,[14] participated in the local dramatics society and read extensively, before returning at the age of 21 to the Gold Coast.
[19] Her involvement with politics started after Kwame Nkrumah founded his Convention People's Party (CPP), in 1949, and she became a member of staff of the nationalist Accra Evening News,[14] joining the campaign for the end of British rule and immediate self-government for the Gold Coast.
[20] She was a prolific author over a period of four decades – her published collections of short stories include The Happenings of the Night (1931), The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for Mr Shaw (1934), Anticipation (1947), The Torn Veil (1947), Payment (1947), Invisible Scar (1966) and Evidence of Passion (1969) — until her literary career was curtailed by her blindness in 1972.
[3] Her work is anthologised in collections including Langston Hughes′ An African Treasury: Articles, Essays, Stories, Poems (1960), and Margaret Busby's Daughters of Africa (1992).