In search of a post-transatlantic slave trade dwelling and conviviality: rethinking Ghana’s ‘Year of Return’ with Ama Ata Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost (1965)

Abstract

Drawing on hooks’ notion of ‘homeplace’, Ahmed’s theorisation of ‘strange encounter,’ and Sharpe’s rumination on Black being ‘in the wake’ or afterlife of slavery, this paper reflects on how Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost can help examine the ‘Year of Return’ project in terms of dwelling. The paper argues that Aidoo’s play proffers a pedagogy of intercultural communication and a radical deconstruction of home and kinship. By noting Aidoo’s emphasis on intercultural communication, home, and dwelling, the paper demonstrates how the ‘Year of Return’ can be conceptually enriched and pragmatically organised in ways that seriously consider Aidoo’s ethic of dwelling. The paper is, therefore, a corrective to the overemphasis in the ‘Year of Return’ celebrations on trade, capital, and investment. Finally, the paper sheds light on the relationship between literature and society.