My favourite text is a play titled “Anowa” by Ama Ataa Aidoo which was published in year 1969. This book was first given to me by my father on my twelfth birthday. Although I was disappointed initially because I was expecting something “girly” on my birthday, I liked it when I read it because of the moral lessons it portrayed and the language used in the play. However, I got a deeper understanding of the test after I did a post-colonial and a feminist analysis on the text. In my post-colonial analysis, I saw that in a sense Anowa represents the moral fabric of traditional African society which is destroyed by the greed and the evil of slavery arising from the contact with European capitalism. A feminist analysis on the other hand shows that Anowa is a woman in the 1870s who is struggling against a detrimental perception of womanhood in her society.
The drama surrounds the story of a young woman called Anowa who disobeys her parents to marry a man-Kofi Ako who has a reputation for indolence and migrates with him to a far place. Childless after several years of marriage Anowa realises that Kofi had sacrificed his manhood for wealth. Upon Anowa’s realisation Kofi in disgrace shoots himself whiles Anowa too drowns herself.
In a postcolonial analysis of “Anowa”, we can see some evidence of Colonialism. Colonialism is a situation whereby a dominant imperium or center carries on a relationship of control and influence over colonies (Key Terms in Post-Colonial Theory, n.d.). In this drama, Aidoo portrays a crucial historical moment in Ghanaian history through the personal tragedy of Anowa and Kofi Ako. Anowa in a sense represents Africa, her destruction representing its conquest and the resulting breakdown of the morality, spiritu...
... middle of paper ...
...away which made her reveal the secret behind Kofi’s wealth.
Having done the above analysis on my favourite text, “Anowa” by Ama Ataa Aidoo, I realise that my like for the text have heightened because the analysis of Anowa has given me a deeper understanding of Africa’s colonialism and our cultural heritage through the personal lives of Anowa and Kofi.
References
Behrent, M. (1997). Ama Ata Aidoo: Anowa. Retrieved from http://www.postcolonialweb.org/africa/ghana/aidoo/anowa1.html
Key Terms in Post-Colonial Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dbu.edu.org
Lambert, J. M. (n.d.). Ama Ata Aidoo's Anowa: Performative Practise and the Postcolonial Subject . Retrieved from https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ap:10:0::NO:10:P10_ACCESSION_NUM:miami1133810135
Melanie Lord, A. G. (n.d.). Feminist Theory. Retrieved on 17th January, 2014 from www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/Feminist.ppt
Mazrui, Ali A. "The Re-Invention of Africa: Edward Said, V. Y. Mudimbe, and Beyond." Research in African Literatures 36, no. 3 (Autumn 2005): 68-82.
In the novel Segu, Maryse Conde beautifully constructs personal and in depth images of African history through the use of four main characters that depict the struggles and importance of family in what is now present day Mali. These four characters and also brothers, by the names of Tiekoro, Siga, Naba, and Malobali are faced with a world changing around their beloved city of Bambara with new customs of the Islamic religion and the developing ideas of European commerce and slave trade. These new expansions in Africa become stepping stones for the Troare brothers to face head on and they have brought both victory and heartache for them and their family. These four characters are centralized throughout this novel because they provide the reader with an inside account of what life is like during a time where traditional Africa begins to change due to the forceful injection of conquering settlers and religions. This creates a split between family members, a mixing of cultures, and the loss of one’s traditions in the Bambara society which is a reflection of the (WHAT ARE SOME CHANGES) changes that occur in societies across the world.
Schwarz, Maureen Trudelle. Molded in the image of changing woman: Navajo views on the human body and personhood. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997. Print.
In Kevin Gaines’ book, American Africans in Ghana, Gaines combines both African and African American history together unlike others have done in the past. Gaines’ book gives his audience insight on the relationship that many prominent African Americans in the Mid-nineteenth century had with Africa. Gaines tackles many issues that were prevalent during this time period, for instance, he tackles race, class, citizenship, independence and freedom. Gaines does this to change the narrative that existed about Africa. Many Black Nationalist, had romanticized Africa to be this place that once had thriving empires but lost everything due to colonization, and westernized blacks needed to go to Africa to help liberate it. Gaines dispels these myths, and
A. Adu Boahen's African Perspectives on Colonialism neatly classifies African responses to European colonialism during both phases of invasion and occupation during the 19th century with precise labels according to their nature or time period. However, the reactions can also be loosely grouped into two diametric characterizations: peaceful and violent. Although creating this dichotomy seems a gross generalization and oversimplification of the colonial African experience, it more importantly allows for a different perspective- one that exposes the overwhelming success of the typically peaceful or pacifist reaction in contrast to the little gain and large losses of the violent response.
Awa Thiam speaks on the topic of the daughters of black Africa trying to find themselves. She also states the comparison of the black women struggle with the European women. Thiam is arguing the point that the European feminist imposed the false argument “Rape is to women what lynching is to Blacks” (Thiam 114). Women in the text suffered from double domination and double enslavement by the colonial phallocratic. Thiam explains the false consciousness of the black women as well. The goal for the women is to achieve total independence, to call man bluff and all alienating influences.
Toyin, Falola. “The Power of African Cultures.” Woodbridge, Suffolk, United Kingdom: University of Rochester Press, 2003. Print
Angeles, Los. (2009). African arts. Volume 28. Published by African Studies Center, University of California.
Khapoya, Vincent B. The African Experience: An Introduction. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. Print.
Chinua Achebe was an influential Nigerian author during the 1900’s who was credited with his three essays which have been fused together into the book “Home and Exile”. In his stories he discusses things such as his own Igbo people, the problems with colonialization, the strength that stories can have and many more topics. A big part of his essays are on his thoughts of colonialism, the impact it has had on his home of Nigeria, and how stories written by others either helped justify colonialism or rejected it. Chinua argues that stories have their own power to fight, and while stories themselves do not have the ability to directly fight colonialism; they do, however with their power of words, stories can motivate and encourage people to stand up against colonialism. In proving this thesis to be a true statement, I will be providing evidence of the how, why and the extent to which stories can fight colonialism.
Korang, Kwaku Larbi. “Making a Post-Eurocentric Humanity: Tragedy, Realism, and Things Fall Apart.” Research in African Literatures 42.2 (2011): 1–29. ProQuest. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
While Collins does a succinct job of examining the economic and political factors that heightened colonization, he fails to hone in on the mental warfare that was an essential tool in creating African division and ultimately European conquest. Not only was the systematic dehumanization tactics crippling for the African society, but also, the system of racial hierarchy created the division essential for European success. The spillover effects of colonialism imparted detrimental affects on the African psyche, ultimately causing many, like Shanu, to, “become victims to the white man’s greed.”
In Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie attempts to use history in order to gain leverage on the present, to subvert the single story stereotypes that dominate many contemporary discourses on Africa. Written in the genre of historical fiction, Adichie’s novel transcends beyond mere historical narration and recreates the polyphonic experiences of varying groups of people in Nigeria before and after the Civil War. She employs temporal distortion in her narrative, distorting time in order to illustrate the intertwining effects of the past and present, immersing deep into the impact of western domination that not only catalyzed the war, but continues to affect contemporary Africa. In this paper, I will analyze her portrayal of the multifaceted culture produced by colonialism – one that coalesces elements from traditional African culture with notions of western modernity to varying degrees. I will argue that Adichie uses a range of characters, including Odenigbo’s mother, Ugwu, Olanna and Kainene, to each represent a point in a spectrum between tradition and modernity. Through her juxtaposition, she undermines the stereotypes that continue to characterize Africa as backwards and traditional, proving instead that colonialism has produced a cross culture where the two are intertwined.
The arrival of the white man in the latter part of the novel turns the traditional setting in Umuofia into an archetypal colonial situation that reveals a classic co...
My favourite text is a play titled “Anowa” by Ama Ataa Aidoo which was published in year 1969. This book was first given to me by my father on my twelfth birthday. Although I was disappointed initially because I was expecting something “girly” on my birthday, I liked it when I read it because of the moral lessons it portrayed and the language used in the play. However, I got a deeper understanding of the test after I did a post-colonial and a feminist analysis on the text. In my post-colonial analysis, I saw that in a sense Anowa represents the beauty of the formal African society which was destroyed as a result of colonialism. A feminist analysis on the other hand shows that Anowa is a woman who is struggling against the 1870’s African feminist identity (the identity of weakness).