#Quotes from Ama Ata Aidoo's No Sweetness Here

When a black man is with his wife who cooks and chores for him, he is a man. When he is with white folk whom he cooks and chores, he is a woman. Dear Lord, what then is a black man who cooks and chores for black men? [For Whom Things Did not Change; 20]

It should be possible that if one can see several miles out in front, into the distance, one should also be able to see into time. All this breeze. These clear skies. Fresh breezes should blow the nonsense from our souls, the stupidities from our minds and lift the veils off our eyes. But it's not like that. It's never been like that. There are as many cramped souls around here as there, among dwellers down there. In the thick woods and on the beaches. Like everyone else, those poets were wrong. [For Whom Things Did not Change; 24]

Scrappy nurse-under-training, Jessy Treeson, second-generation-Cape-Coaster-her-grandmother-still-remembered-at-Egya No. 7 said, 'As for these villagers,' and giggled. [The Message; 53]

He was beautiful, but that was not important. Beauty does not play such a vital role in a man's life as it does in a woman's, or so people think. If a man's beauty is so ill-mannered as to be noticeable, people discreetly ignore its existence. [No Sweetness Here; 66]

My daughter, when life fails you, it fails you totally. One's yams reflect the total sum of one's life. [No Sweetness Here; 70]

A goalkeeper is a dubious character in infant soccer. He is either a good goalkeeper and that is why he is at the goal, which is usually difficult to know in a child, or he is a bad player. [No Sweetness Here; 78]

If there is anything people of this country have, it is a big mouth. [Two Sisters; 118]

The good child who willingly goes on errands eats the food of peace. [Late Bud; 121]

A good woman does not rot. [Something to Talk About on the Way to the Funeral; 137]

That is the story I am telling you. I am taking you to bird-town so I can't understand why you insist on searching for eggs from the suburbs. [Something to Talk About on the Way to the Funeral; 138]

[L]et us say it will be good, so it shall be good. Something to Talk About on the Way to the Funeral; 140]

Once when mother didn't know I was within earshot I heard her telling my little aunt that Father always feels through his coins for the ones which have gone soft to give away! [Other Versions; 152]