Abstract
African routes to modernities have been marked by internal fissures and ambivalences that affect social life and political and economic structures in several ways. In the novel Changes: A Love Story, the Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo deals with the inconsistencies of modernities, asking whether global capitalism promotes gender equity or mainly contributes to social stratification, generating more complex hierarchies. This essay examines how Aidoo’s narrative utilizes women’s sexuality as an allegory to provide a vehement critique of colonial and post-independence policies, abusive indigenous practices, male privilege and corruption while shedding some light on women’s condition in modern urban Accra.
Highlights
David Harvey, in The Condition of Postmodernity, asserts that “modernity is characterized by a never-ending process of internal ruptures and fragmentations within itself” (1989, 12)
Transforms or adjusts societies according to the parameters of global capitalism, it is very committed to “recuperations, continuity, and repressions” (Harvey, 2)
Modernity focuses on the spread of capitalism and global interconnection while being concerned with cultural identity
Summary
David Harvey, in The Condition of Postmodernity, asserts that “modernity is characterized by a never-ending process of internal ruptures and fragmentations within itself” (1989, 12). For April Gordon, capitalism and patriarchy are always interrelated in African contexts She asserts that, “social forces that defend African patriarchy [...] will certainly continue to oppose many changes that favor women at the expense of male dominance – even if male dominance undermines economic development and capitalism” (1996, 10). “social forces that defend African patriarchy [...] will certainly continue to oppose many changes that favor women at the expense of male dominance – even if male dominance undermines economic development and capitalism” (1996, 10) In this sense, Aidoo’s novel discusses the notion that the continued interest in maintaining hierarchies, through nationalist ideologies and Metaphors of Modernity: Palimpsestic Identities, Polygamous Marriages and Global... As capitalism and modernity assume new nuances in urban Accra, and class divides become more confusing, Esi’s feminism gradually gets displaced, while Aidoo reminds the reader how her protagonist carries the legacy of the celebrated Ghanaian playwright Kobina Sekyi
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