Abstract
Most male characters in the exile, analysed from a Post-Colonial perspective, were usually classified as either suffering from a neo-colonial process, and therefore rejecting tradition, or as keeping tradition and longing for going back to a patriarchal society. In this article, I aim to establish how Ama Ata Aidoo, in her play The Dilemma of a Ghost (1964), represents the feelings of unrootedness, loss and guilt associated to the main male character’s return to Africa. The use of the social and personal consequences that his comeback home to a matrilineal family has, will uncover the relation established between his family and his African American wife. In doing so, I will analyse how through an ‘insignificant’ song Aidoo tackles the controversial issue of the children of the diaspora and offers a solution to its rejection by the African population.
Highlights
Africa, Diaspora, and the Discourse of Modernity.” Research in African Literatures 24.4 (1996): 1-6.Gilroy, Paul
When analysing male characters in the exile, from a PostColonial perspective, most of them are usually classified as either suffering from a neo-colonial process, and rejecting tradition, or as keeping tradition and longing for going back to a patriarchal society (See Aidoo, Our Sister; Emecheta, In the Ditch, Kehinde, Second-Class; Ogot, The Graduate, among others)
The family thinks the reason why Eulalie does not get pregnant is that she smokes and drinks alcohol, so they want to clean her stomach. This visit entails an argument between the couple that leads to the truth of the matter
Summary
According to the South African writer Nadine Gordimer, African writers’ novels and plays can be grouped in five recurrent categories, depending on the themes discussed within them: ‘Countryman-Comes-to-Town’, ‘The Return of the Been-to’, ‘The Ancestors versus the Missionary’, ‘The Way it Was Back Home’ and ‘Let My People Go’ (qtd. in Levitov 5). This visit entails an argument between the couple that leads to the truth of the matter Eulalie discovers that her family-inlaw thinks she is sterile and that Ato did not explain them the real reason of their lack of children: “Why don’t you tell them you promised me we would start having kids when I wanted them?” (Dilemma 47). [African] women writers’ texts repossess and maintain a tradition that colonial education eroded” (203) Following this idea and keeping in mind that The Dilemma of a Ghost is a play to be staged, I strongly believe that Aidoo appropriates this role of story-teller and lets her audience learn about the problems caused by Ato’s return from the exile and by the nonacceptance of a diasporic past, presenting the final acceptance and understanding of both women as an example. The audience is the one responsible of breaking the silence and distinguishing what is ‘significant’ and what is not
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