Maya Angelou’s newly found writing from Egypt and Ghana reveals a more radical side to her career

On August 28 1963, a group of activists gathered opposite the US Embassy in the Ghanaian capital of Accra. Inspired by the March in Washington unfolding 5,000 miles away, the protesters carried placards urging the US government to “wipe out racism” and claiming that the US now faced a choice between “civil liberties and civil war”.

In the front row of the demonstration was a face that would later become famous – the American author and poet Maya Angelou.

The Accra march reflected Angelou’s growing engagement with radical politics. Frustrated by American racism and fascinated by African decolonisation, she moved to Egypt in 1961 and then Ghana in 1963. In both countries, she found work as a journalist within the state-controlled media.

While Angelou’s memoirs give few details about this political work, I’ve spent the last three years tracking down surviving copies of her writing from Egypt and Ghana. These newly uncovered texts demonstrate Angelou’s efforts to link the struggle for civil rights in the US to global campaigns against racism and imperialism.

However, they also suggest she faced censorship and discrimination which tested her skill as a writer and may have ultimately encouraged her to return to the US.

Today, Angelou – who was born on April 4, 1928 – is best known for I Know...

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