The Dilemma of a Ghost – Ama Ata Aidoo
The writer’s next play, Anowa (1970) is set in the late 19th century and deals with a head strong woman who instead marries a man of her choice. Alas all is not well in the union especially as she faces her husband’s ownership of slaves.The story touches a sore subject about Africans’ partake in the slave trade. Aidoo has mentioned the importance discussing the dark history of our role in slavery and how it may aid in mending the issues Africa faces presently.
No Sweetness Here: A Collection of Short Stories,( 1970) is a collection of short stories that contained many complex themes that includes the differences between urban and rural societies, divisions between men and women.The use of African idioms gave a sense of the oral to the written word through these stories.
Aidoo dabs into an experimental form of writing by interspersing the prose narrative with poetry in this novel.Our Sister Killjoy: or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint(1977) is a story that follows a young African woman as she journeys from Africa to Europe in the late 1960’s. It delves into the intertwined yet different histories of both continents.The spotlight shines bright on the underdevelopment, exoticizing of Africans and racism.Controversial topics are focused which includes a scene where the main character rebuffs the sexual advances of a white woman. The loss of identity is the vocal theme throughout while repeating why it’s important to remain connected one’s motherland and culture.
Someone Talking to Sometime (a poetry collection), 1986
The Eagle and the Chicken, 1986
Birds and Other Poems, 1987
Ama Ata Aidoo was in 1982, appointed Ghana’s minister of education. About a year later, she moved to Zimbabwe all the while teaching and writing poems and two children’s books.
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Changes: a Love Story (novel), 1991
Polygamy is pretty much the norm in many tribes of Africa and of course most of us in America equate that term with Mormons in Utah.Well Aidoo decided to tackle this old age subject with a twist in exploring the self determination for contemporary women. A woman’s life in a polygamous marriage is narrated as she comes to a resolve to ditch her husband. The writer was quoted as saying “love or the workings of love is also political” due the gravity of Africa’s political problems,she couldn’t muster writing the notion of an African love story.I love how it simply talks about women going out into the world with open eyes and heart by truly living for themselves. Aidoo deservedly received the Commonwealth Writers Prize for African Writers in response to this work.
An Angry Letter in January (poems), 1992 is her second volume book of Poetry.
Following that was her short story collection: The Girl Who Can and Other Stories, 1997
Diplomatic Pounds & Other Stories, 2012
African Love Stories – an anthology, 2012
Ama Ata Aidoo has cited that the development of African literature as a poignant concern for her work:” I still believe that one day,when Africa comes into her own, the dynamism of orality might be something that Africa can give to the world.” Hear, Hear! There is so much more to this majestic land than its troubles than meets the eye.In time its beauty and that of its people will far outshine the pessimism that in parts is crippling it in the eyes of the rest of the world.
“We need to be able to challenge gender and class oppression, imperialism and exploitation . . . . Because in our hands lies, perhaps, the last possible hope for ourselves, and for everyone else on the continent [and in the world].”
-Ama Ata Aidoo “The African Woman Today”
