No Sweetness Here

A notable symbol throughout the story is Chicha’s wristwatch. This method of timekeeping is imported to Ghanaian society, a product of colonialism, and Chicha thinks of her relationship to time as one of the things that marks her as different from the others in the village: “[M]y watch read 4:15, that ambiguous time of day which these people, despite their great ancient astronomic knowledge, have yet to identify” (58). She goes on to describe that transitional time another way in more relative terms: “For the very young and very old, it is certainly evening, for they’ve stayed home all day and they begin to persuade themselves that the day is ending” (57-58). This experiential understanding of time is more in keeping with the texture of life in the village than the absolute time signified by the wristwatch. Chicha’s watch is associated with the European-influenced part of Chicha’s world—she carries it alongside her books, which are part of her role as a teacher who follows “the white man’s way” (58). She looks at the watch just before key moments of the story, such as on her way to her encounter with Maami Ama; on her way to the divorce proceedings, for which she is late; and on her return to the schoolhouse, when she notices that it is empty. When she looks at the clock in the schoolhouse the third time, Kwesi is across town, dying from the snakebite. The clock is also a motif used for foreshadowing. No one knows, but Kwesi’s time is running out. By the end of the story, he will be dead, and Chicha will note the time of his funeral. That watch, with all its negative connotations, has the final word in the story: Chicha, who is often in motion, watches the silently grieving Maami Ama and notes the time again: “It was six o’clock; but this time, I did not run” (74).