Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa, by Ama Ata Aidoo.

Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa: Two Plays, by Ama Ata Aidoo.   Longman (1995), Edition: 1, Paperback, 124 pages

Two powerful plays by a leading African author about conflicts between spouses and between parents and children.

I generally find it difficult to read plays, but when I saw a video with a scene from Ama Ata Aidoo’s Anowa, I knew I needed to read these.  As Africans developed their own literary traditions after independence, Aidoo was one of a group of women who insured women’s voices would be included.  I have read and enjoyed her writing before, especially her novel Changes.  Often blending prose and poetry, she has continued to be a leading Ghanaian author who publishes in a variety of genres.  I particularly like how her stories are about the relationship of Africans with each other.  Even her concern over the impact of slavery focuses on Africans rather than slave traders from Europe and the Americas.

Both Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa explore conflicts that develop when powerful extended families are confronted with sons and daughters who move beyond their circle of control.  Both plays deal with the legacy of slavery in Africa.  Both  include the voices of ordinary villagers commenting on the action, much like the chorus does in Greek plays. Both are mildly sympathetic with the independence of sons and daughters, but for me their real strength lay in the ability to convey positively why the parents were justified in trying to keep them within the family. It is easy for westerners like myself to identity with the rebellion of the next generation, but harder to understand why traditions and kinship must also be honored.  Aidoo conveys the families’ position with particular force.

Aidoo wrote Dilemma of a Ghost in the 1960s when she was still a college student.  In it the son of an African family goes to the United States to study and returns with an African-American wife; in their eyes she is a “white-black woman” who is the “daughter of slaves. ” The family is appalled by her behavior, and she is confused and unwilling to accept their values.  No one seems able to move out of the impasse, until the mother offers to teach the bride about family traditions. The play resonates with a children’s song about a ghost unsure of what path to take next.

Shall I go

To Cape Coast,

Or to Elmina

I don’t know,

I can’t tell.

I don’t know,

I can’t tell.

Anowa is set in an earlier period of African history when slavery was being practiced.  A young woman, Anowa, chooses to marry a man whom her parents reject as unworthy.  The couple leaves with Anowa angrily promising never to return.  The couple develop a successful business traveling around buying and selling skins.  As they begin to become wealthy, the husband decides to buy slaves so that they can have some leisure. Anowa is disturbed by the presence of slaves.  She has no desire to stay behind with no work to do.  The greed and reliance on slaves seems to sap the husband’s “manhood” and drive the childless wife mad.  Conflict between a daughter and her parents becomes conflict between husband and wife that escalates into tragedy.

I continue to find plays difficult to read and feel that I miss much of what is happening because I know so little about African life.  Yet I was very moved by these plays.  I strongly recommend them to all readers, especially to non-Africans seeking to understand African dilemmas in their own terms.