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Noted Ghanaian Author Ama Ata Aidoo to Read From Award-Winning Changes and Other Works
New York, NY-- Noted Ghanaian novelist, playwright and activist Ama Ata Aidoo will hold a reading at Barnard College as part of Barnard's Literature of the Middle Passage Senior Seminar. Aidoo will read from her award-winning novel Changes and other recent works on Thursday, October 21 at 5:30 p.m. in Sulzberger Parlor, 3 rd floor Barnard Hall (117 th and Broadway).
Ama Ata Aidoo is a leading figure in the struggle for Ghanaian national liberation and self-determination. She first gained recognition in 1965 with the publication of her play The Dilemma of a Ghost , which explored the conflict between traditional culture and Western values. Aidoo was Consulting Professor to the Washington bureau of the Phelps-Stokes Fund's Ethnic Studies Program. Aidoo returned to Ghana in 1983, where she served as Minister of Education until 1984. Aidoo is currently a visiting professor at Brown University, and is a visiting faculty member for the Literature of the Middle Passage course, taught by Caryl Phillips.
Aidoo's works explore the encounter between African and European cultures, the psychological impact of post-colonialism on women, and the role of women in the process of change. She said: "Isn't it clear that the African man alone isn't able to cope with our relationship with the West and the rest of the world?" Her books include No Sweetness Here (1970), Our Sister Killjoy: Or, Reflections of a Black-Eyed Squint (1977), Someone Talking to Sometime (1986), a children's book, The Eagle and the Chickens (1987) and Changes (1991). Aidoo's play Anowa (1991), based on the legend of a girl who defied her parents in the choice of her husband, was produced in Britain in 1991.
In Changes , Aidoo examines the lives of women in contemporary Ghana. The protagonist Esi Sekyi earns more than her schoolmaster husband Oku. After a marital rape, she asks for a divorce; the story then follows Esi's relationship with Muslim businessman Ali Kondey. Esi finds that in spite of a career, education, and financial independence, she still experiences a freedom restricted by gender. Changes won the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Africa in 1993.
The Literature of the Middle Passage Senior Seminar examines the literature that has been produced as a result of the Atlantic slave trade, including writing from Africa, Britain, and the Americas. The literary texts by Achebe, Ama Ata Aidoo, Du Bois, Conrad, Equiano, and Baldwin studied in the course reflect the huge changes in history that have occurred as a result of this involuntary migration out of Africa. The course culminates in a twelve-day visit to Ghana in November.
Contact: Petra Tuomi, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7907
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