Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa (Longman African Writers Series)

Author: Ama Ata Aidoo Price: $ 12.96 (new) $ 5.25 (used) Medium: Paperback (124 pages) Publisher: Longman 1995-06-15

Editorial Description

These two witty and perceptive social dramas are sympathetic and honest explorations of the conflicts between the individualism of westernised culture and the social traditions of Africa. Both plays have been performed throughout the world.

Reader Reviews

If you wonder where Lorraine Hansberry's character Beneatha
Younger would go from Chicago if she did choose to marry her African boyfriend after college. Well then you've found the work you're looking for. The Dilemma of a Ghost is profoundly deep in the sense that it is based in the world of newly independent post-colonial black Africa in collision with the world of the black African-American. If you are interested in such things as ideology and culture then you could definitely enjoy the conflicting and sometimes tragically comical images of these characters' choices. The woman and the man and their in-laws make the story traditional in its setting, but the influence of white U.S. culture on the bride and the whole academic and intellectual elitism of the modern Africa juxtaposed upon the flesh of traditional Africa are bared here. And the results like the finale of A Raisin in the Sun are hardly bearable to the human desire for pleasant resolution. But all are very realistic and spawn considerable thought instead of the usual types of forgettable works that are usually praise as classics. If you are interested in the practicalities of love and real people the plot line will satisfy you desire for drama. And also you can glimpse into the mind of an early commentary on African female thought about syndrom of the African man who wants to be in a capitalist and so-called educated world and its lack of practicality in the real situation at the time. The black U.S. fantasy about back to africa fairy tale paradise and stereotypes of primitivism which are encountered by the U.S. black woman, who is white in culture according to her inlaws. Overall the content is very challenging and still thought provoking today in our examination of the on-going encounter between black and white and colonialism and indigeneous vs. capitalism.