‘I’ve published less than I would have wished’
Ama Ata Aidoo is in
her hotel room in Lagos, talking about the night before, when she had
been a special guest at the Farafina Trust literary evening. “I had
forgotten how well received I am in this country… how well Nigerians
have always kind of taken me and my work. It was so wonderful.” It is
her first visit in many years, and she declares herself impressed by
changes on the landscape of Lagos, as well as the vibrant art scene.
Asked about the
literary in her country, Ghana, the author of ‘Our Sister Killjoy’,
‘Changes’ and ‘An Angry Letter in January’, says things are looking up.
“ A couple of years back the scene was dry and I would have hesitated a
little more. But we definitely have a crop of really talented writers
coming up.” She names young Ghanaian writers including Mohammed Ali
Naseehu, Ayesha Haruna-Atta and Yaba Badoe. “It’s beginning to look a
whole lot more encouraging than it’s been for a long time,” Aidoo
affirms.
Spirit of the sixties
Like Achebe,
Soyinka and Ngugi, Ama Ata Aidoo came to literary prominence in the
sixties, writing her now classic play, ‘The Dilemma of a Ghost’ at age
23. Asked what led to so many great works by would be giants of African
literature around this period, Aidoo gives her own take on the issue.
“I suspect [it has to do with] the whole idea of independence – some of
these African countries had just emerged from open, or formal
colonialism – and I think the sheer wonder, the enthusiasm, the
expectations that it’s going to be a new world, must have been quite
inspirational for us.” She also believes that economic and other social
realities were less harsh in the 60s. “And then there is also the whole
question of the grip of the writer on the English language. We just
felt like writing and the language was not a problem. I think that
language has [now] become… part of the problem,” she says.
On the suggestion
that the language problem may be due to a decline in educational
standards, Aidoo – once Minister of Education in Jerry Rawlings’
government – agrees, saying, “This has been true of Ghana, and I am not
too sure I can honestly say that we’ve recovered.” She admits to
finding the issue “stressful” and alludes to ideas she had for
education once, which “caused so much controversy in Ghana.” But then
she checks herself, saying, “I think it’s a bit arrogant to say that
because you couldn’t get your ideas through some 20, 25 years ago, that
nobody or group of people are capable of helping things to improve. I
think I should let go because any aspect of a country’s development
cannot come out of the mind or activism of one person. There has always
to be a collective move.”
The African Diaspora
Ama Ata Aidoo’s
play, ‘The Dilemma of a Ghost’ (1965) was performed in Accra in 2007 to
mark 50 years of Ghana’s independence. It was staged later in the same
year at the Africa Centre in London to mark 200 years of the abolition
of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. 2007 also saw the production of the
play in Dublin, Ireland, by a Nigerian theatre director, Bisi Adigun.
Did Aidoo know in the 60s that her play would go this far? “No,” she
replies. “I couldn’t possibly have imagined it, no way. First, I was
that young. I just wanted to write a play, frankly. I didn’t think it
would get this far.”
In ‘Dilemma of a
Ghost’, an African American female marries a Ghanaian and comes back
with him to “the source”. The play captures the exuberance of the heady
60s when African Americans and Caribbeans came to the newly independent
country, wanting to be part of the spirit of Nkrumah’s Ghana. The
author says the phenomenon has never really waned. “As far as Diasporan
Africans are concerned, that feeling of wanting to be part of some
African thing stayed. [It] has remained through all these years of
disenchantment and more physical manifestations of disillusionment
because – maybe because of the (slave) forts – we in Ghana still get
some substantial volume of movement from both the Caribbean and the USA
and around the African world; Europe also,” she says.
“And of course,
with Obama coming to Accra recently, that must also have kind of
kindled a new wave. There were people who were coming in the 60s, 70s,
the 80s – who still come.” Aidoo cites the recent funeral of Naa Morkor
Busia (widow of former Ghanaian prime minister Kofi Abrefa Busia), at
which Stevie Wonder sang. Also in attendance was director John
Singleton (ex-husband of actress Akosua Busia). Aidoo also mentions
Rita Marley, who spends half the year in Ghana; and Anne Adams who left
her job at a US university to direct the W.E.B Dubois Memorial Centre
for Pan-African Culture in Accra. “She is still very much part of
Ghanaian academic and intellectual life,” says the writer. It occurs to
her to differentiate between the Diaspora sprung from slavery (what she
calls “traditional Disporans”) and Africans who have lived in places
like London for two years. “We must have some way of differentiating
between the two streams,” she explains.
But is there a need
in a Post-Obama world for African Americans and Caribbeans to return to
an ancestral homeland? Aidoo suggests the question of how relevant
Africa is to the African Diasporan, is for them to answer. “How the
traditional Diaspora relates to Africa has a whole lot more to do with
themselves, rather than us. Of course, we could help by getting
ourselves a little better in organised. It must be kind of reassuring
for one to go to one’s ancestral home and see that things are working.”
The writer as a young girl
Ama Ata Aidoo
decided to become a writer at the age of 15, having grown up in an
environment where storytelling was part of daily life. Her village had
some kind of official storyteller whose job it was to spin tales. Aidoo
also had a headmaster in primary school who delighted in getting the
children to tell stories to themselves; and on some weekends he hauled
them around surrounding villages, doing the same. The young Aidoo also
loved reading. Looking back now, the author recognises that all these
lit the imaginative fire in her, preparing her for a life of writing.
Efua Sutherland
As a young
graduate, Aidoo came under the influence of Efua Sutherland (author of
‘The Marriage of Anansewa’), while serving as a Junior Research Fellow
in the Institute of African Studies in Accra. “I worked directly under
her, transcribing some of the stories she had collected. Unfortunately,
I don’t know what happened to that collection, but generally, working
with her was wonderful,” recalls Aidoo, who calls the late Sutherland
“an enabler.” Reflecting further, she says, “I think I was so lucky to
fall into the hands of someone like Efua Sutherland. She was very much
committed to the arts. She wrote poetry, she wrote plays, she produced,
directed and so on.”
One of the
performers of in the 2007 production of ‘The Dilemma of a Ghost’ in
London’s Africa Centre was Adeline Ama Buabeng, who was raised by
Sutherland. Aidoo says of Buabeng, “She has been one of the people who
have literally lived in such a way that their whole life is literally a
manifestation of what [Sutherland] did, like a tribute, because she has
stayed in the arts. Frankly, one of the reasons why I’ve always felt
good about that London production of ‘The Dilemma of a Ghost’ was
precisely the fact that someone like Ama had the chance to be in it.”
Fiction, drama and poetry
Aidoo’s favourite
genre used to be poetry, which is the least known of her writing. Now,
she favours the short story genre. “With a short story, one doesn’t
have to spin as many words as for the novel. I like reading short
stories and I’ve felt rather good that I’ve turned out some good short
stories and hope to continue.”
Her play, ‘Anowa’,
was only produced after it had been published and so could not be
amended during production. “I myself killed my dramatic impulses
because I swore never to write [another] play unless I had a group to
work with.” Now she wonders why she had been so “traumatised” when she
should have been feeling good. “To be honest with you, ‘Anowa’ seems to
have made its own life as a really viable piece of theatre, so I can’t
continue to mourn the fact that I hadn’t seen a production of it before
it was published.”
On the gender
concerns of her books, Aidoo insists the issues have not gone away and
there is much for female writers to tackle still. “It’s like women are
even less exuberant or independent. Unfortunately, women in their 20s,
especially from the universities, are becoming a lot more timid than we
were.” These days, Aidoo teaches for half of the year at Brown
University in the US and spends the rest of the time in Ghana. She is
active in MBASEEM, a group set up to support women writers in Ghana.
Influences
Aidoo believes the
issue of influences is for the critics to determine. Nonetheless, she
declares that every writer she has ever read, taught her something. “In
terms of William Shakespeare, bless his heart, wherever he is – he must
have influenced me as a dramatist because I realised that, for
instance, until I consciously changed the format of ‘Anowa’, ‘Dilemma…’
had acts, like Shakespeare.” She wrote her own plays before ‘Death and
the King’s Horseman’, and so could not have been influenced by it, but
she cannot praise Soyinka’s masterpiece enough. “That play, for me,
defines the best in drama and certainly the best in African drama.
Incredible work,” she enthuses.
The publication of
Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ was a watershed for Aidoo, fresh from the
English Department of the University of Ghana Legon, decades back.
“Having this novel come out probably reinforced me in a way that I was
not aware of at the time. We were so busy doing the English tradition.
Before Achebe I hadn’t even been aware that an African can write a
novel that the English Department can have us read as recommended text.
That must have influenced me.”
African love stories
Aidoo edited
‘African Love Stories’ (Ayebia, UK), an anthology that produced the
2007 Caine winning story by Monica Arac de Nyeko. “When Ayebia asked me
whether I would edit this, I didn’t express my reluctance, but
definitely with myself I was a bit iffy.” Then she got the manuscript
and felt privileged to be associated with it, “because it’s such a
wonderful collection.”
Favourite reads
She is currently
reading the “big, fat” Booker Prize winning novel by Hilary Mantel,
‘Wolf Hall’. “Isn’t that something? I couldn’t put this book down. I’ve
enjoyed it enormously.” She gasps when talking about ‘The Known World’
by Edward P. Jones; she has just finished his short story collection,
‘Lost in the City’. Aidoo also loves new writings by Ghanaian writers.
Going on
Ama Ata Aidoo intends to keep on writing. She is working on a novel
and has just finished what she hopes will be her third collection of
short stories. “I’ve published less than I would have wished. And so,
if I still have the energy and maybe the tendency to write, I better
just shut up and write.”
