ESI: [Addressing ATO] Is it true that your wife has thrown away the snails I bought? ATO: Who informed you? ESI: That is not important, but is it true? ATO: [Defensively] She does not know how to eat them ... and ... ESI: And what, my son? Do you not know how to eat them now? What kind of man are you growing into? Are your wife’s taboos yours? Rather your taboos should be hers. “The Dilemma of a Ghost”, Ama Ata Aidoo’s masterly play, portrayed the clash between traditional culture and western values. She cut her literary teeth in the world of drama using a narrative technique embracing prose (for the bigger picture) and poetry (for the supporting subtleties and nuances) to explore the conflicted environment of an African husband and an African-American wife. She got the gist for the play, she said, while listening to a children’s playsong in Takoradi (Western Region) where she grew up. The song lent itself to many promising adaptations; but she felt impelled, particularly, to enter an arena where angels feared to tread. There was something of value she really wanted to say, and it was worth the effort in walking straight through the uncomfortable truth of Africa’s complicity in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The play premiered at the Commonwealth Amphitheatre at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1964, while she was a student there. Enthused by the memory of that nostalgic event, Prof Kwabena Nketia recalled, “My own children performed in the play: Akosua was eleven, and her brother, Kwabena, was about 10.” Aidoo was possibly energized by Ghana’s iconic playwright and poet, Afua Sutherland, also a Fante (from the Central region). In 1960 Sutherland founded the Drama Studio in Accra; it later evolved into a lively part of the Institute of African Studies when she joined the staff of the new School of Music and Drama, Legon, headed by the world renowned ethnomusicologist, Prof Kwabena Nketia. [The relationship of the musical geniuses Ephraim Amu and Prof Nketia share coincidental similarities akin to the Sutherland and Aidoo link.] Between Sutherland and Aidoo, the University of Ghana was treated to original theatrical performances. The two amazing women brought to the stage women issues that had long been silenced in a male dominated world. Sutherland’s staged works included “Foriwa” (1962), “Edufa” (1967), “The Marriage of Anansewa” (1975), and “Anansegoro”, story-telling drama in Ghana. For children’s plays, she used a bilingual approach, supported by the relevant literature as in “Vulture! Vulture!” and “Tahinta” (1968) composed as rhythm plays with various chorus lines. With the formation of the “Kusum Agoromba” (Kusum Players) in 1968, Sutherland originated a touring group that performed at schools, churches, and training colleges in Ghana. Sutherland’s Drama Studio - initially intended for a workshop to groom children’s writers - soon morphed into a turf for sprucing playwrights, and creating new theatre. Returning from Stanford University in California to teach at the University of Cape Coast, Ama Ata Aidoo released her other play, “Anowa”, in 1970. The play was set in the late 19th century, and featured the beautiful strong willed Anowa who refuted tradition, but soon got entangled in a childless marriage to a man “she chose” herself, a man who was alleged to “trade” his manhood for wealth and slaves on “the whole Guinea coast”. The poetry in the drama is splendid, exemplified by this juicy inkling from an Old Man character erotically taunted by Anowa’s charm: “Beautiful as Korado Ahima, / Someone’s – Thin-Thread. / A dainty little pot / Well-baked, / And polished smooth / To set in a nobleman’s corner.” The sense of Gold Coast / European history in the drama is equally telling: “It is now a little less than thirty years / When the lords of our Houses / Signed that piece of paper - / The Bond of 1844 they call it - / Binding us to the white men / Who came from beyond the horizon.” With pan-African overtures the plot returns to the theme of Africa’s connivance in slavery, the “trade with the white men ... buying men and women.” The play’s therapeutic import was captured in this commentary on YouTube: “I appreciate her having the courage to really approach this topic. Especially being a child of those taken into slavery. I think the acknowledgment heals wounds and hopefully people can work together to eradicate the slavery that still goes on, today.” [The Zimbabwe International Book Fair listed “Anowa” as one of the best African literary works of the 20th century. Aidoo’s other books include “Changes” (published 1991, and winner of the 1992 Commonwealth Prize for Literature in Africa); and “The Girl Who Can, and other Stories” (1997)] After nearly seven years on (the Ivy League) Brown University faculty (Providence, RI), Aidoo concluded her time there in December 2010. As a visiting professor of Africana Studies - in the company Anani Dzidzienyo (an Mfantsipim old boy, and a board member of the F.L. Bartels Education Foundation) - Aidoo (an old girl of Wesley Girls High School, Cape Coast) left an impression on colleagues who paid gleaming tributes to “her work, spirit, and important contributions to the Brown community”. A celebration and tribute at Brown - dubbed “Conversations in Africana Writing: Ama Ata Aidoo” - attracted Tuzyline Jita Allan of Baruch College, CUNY, who said: To “take the African out of the African context [is like taking] fish out of the water. Wherever [Aidoo] is, she has to go back to Ghana – not lose her cultural identity – her Africaness – the nourishment. She is such a seeker of truth that she’s not blind to the flaws of tradition: that men are born and should occupy a place of hierarchy – that is not exactly suitable for Ama. [There’re] traditional aspects that need dismantling.” A professor of Africana Studies, Dzidzienyo (Dzi, from our Mfantsipim days in the 1960s) commented: “My own hope is that the example that was created by bringing her here, and the success of that experience would be something to be institutionalized. I don’t think we could have done any better.” The chair of the Africana Studies, Tricia Rose, alluded to the courage of Aidoo’s convictions: “In her mind and spirit is that larger commitment to a just world, to a sense of openness: A sense of possibility means that she encourages us to be willing to change even as we remain committed. And she speaks across generations in a rich way more so than anyone else I know. It’s been a real blessing having her here.” The Cambridge International Examiners (CIE) understandably feature African Prose (in Literature In English) from Chinua Achebe’s classic “Things Fall Apart”, and African Poetry by Charles Mungoshi, and Nobel laureate - Wole Soyinka, and others. For the genre of African Drama, it is most appropriate to include and alternate the following plays: “The Marriage of Anansewa” by Efua Sutherland; and “The Dilemma of a Ghost” and “Anowa” by Ama Ata Aidoo. As a memorable collection, the three selections reveal the literary stamina, pathos, and grace of the African woman in the classic tradition of Bessie Head (When Rain Clouds Gather), and Maya Angelou (I know why the caged bird sings). Additionally, they explore pertinent issues about African women in modern societies, the strange mix of religion and superstition, and other “salt and pepper” matters ripe for unravelling in the 21st century. The three plays also provide rich metaphors and other exotic figures of speech for the appreciation African culture and values. •[Wishing readers, and all who sent those stimulating insights: A Happy New Year. Stay blessed, stay tuned, and support our youth. Youth Leadership Forum email: anishaffar@yahoo.com]