Between 1967 and 1968, he was editor of "Jeune Afrique" magazine in Paris. From 1968 to 1970, Armah studied at Columbia University, obtaining his MFA in creative writing. In the 1970s, he worked as a teacher in East Africa, at the College of National Education, Chang'ombe, Tanzania, and at the National University of Lesotho. He subsequently taught at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Cornell University, and at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has lived in Dakar, Senegal, since the 1980s.