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No Sweetness Here  (1970; 2013 reprinting by IBSS; 157) by Ama Ata Aidoo is a collection of eleven short stories. Though the title is familiar I have always thought of it as a novel. The short story genre had been used by some writers mostly to fill the interregnum between novels. However, I am pretty sure this was not its purpose in Aidoo's case. The stories in here are quintessential Aidoo, though I have read just a few of her works; they are realistic and examine our daily lives in such a way as to prove, irrefutably, that nothing much has changed; that modernity only adds gadgets and equipment without changing the basic behaviour of humans. If anything at all, we move in circles and in cycles, repeating events and attitudes. For instance, if you thought that power and promiscuity, or power and domination - specifically, the unconscious repression and discrimination that makes the power-bearer superior to all others, are today's problems then you definitely have to think ag...

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 Mes...

Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories (Ayebia Clarke 2012; 170) by Ama Ata Aidoo is a collection of twelve beautifully written short stories, which confirms the author’s position as a foremost writer in Africa and beyond. Treating everyday subject with unique perspectives and a delicate style that she alone possesses, Aidoo opens up old traditions and questions long-held views with fresh views. Whether it is about the story of a woman who leaves the country of her birth swearing never to return or the story of a group of girls trapped in an alien culture where issues of feminine proportions are at variance with what they had grown up with, Aidoo shows that her sense of observation is as sharp as ever and that there is tradition in every situation that could be questioned. New Lessons , the first story in the collection, provided the platform to question, subtly as in most of the stories, the idea of home and the motive of migration. Most at times, people who leave the shores of th...

Title: Changes Author: Ama Ata Aidoo Genre: Novel (Love Story) Pages: 200 Publishers: African Writers Series ISBN: 978-0-435910-14-3 Year of Publication: 1991 Changes by Ama Ata Aidoo is a love story that transcends the sub-genre within which it has been placed. Sometimes in our inability to classify a book we give it a classification readers would quickly agree. If one knows the culture and religious dynamics of Ghana, one would realise that Changes challenges a lot of the stereotypic mentality of Ghanaians, that the characters, some of which are the usual archetypal Ghanaians, were mostly opening new avenues of our social life and pushing the boundaries of what has become the norm in relationships, such as inter-cultural marriages and women divorcing their husbands. In an age where anything practiced by our forebears is described as evil or colloquial, where people (educated) would gladly accept homosexuals and condemn polygamists, only because the former is acc...

I have been surfing and reading some stories on the net today and I would want to share with you these two authors who have entertained readers with good novels and plays. One is amongst the old generation of writers, in the class of the Achebe's and Soyinka's and the other is amongst the new generation of authors, and both are women. Ama Ata Aidoo (author of ' Anowa' and ' The Dilemma of the Ghost ') recently visited Nigeria and was interviewed by Molara Wood . This is an interesting and intellectual interview that digs deep into the author. She talks about her life's works, her present work, her thoughts concerning the new generation of authors and the problem with the literary arts in Ghana. She also talked about her childhood, the influence of Efua Sutherland and many others. Read the full interview here.... Chimamanda Adichie (Author of ' Half of a Yellow Sun ' and ' The Thing Around Your Neck ') has also been interviewed on Oprah.c...