44 pages • 1 hour read
Ama Ata AidooOur Sister Killjoy
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1977A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Ama Ata Aidoo
Ama Ata Aidoo was a Ghanaian poet and writer. She was born in 1942 in the village of Abeadzi Kyiakor on the Gold Coast, the British colony that is now Ghana. Aidoo earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Ghana, during which she began to write. She published her first play, The Dilemma of a Ghost, in 1965. In the play, Aidoo explored themes that would remain central to many works throughout her career, including the experience of receiving a foreign education as an African.
Aidoo completed a creative writing fellowship at Stanford University before returning to Ghana to teach English at the University of Ghana in 1969. In 1983, she became the Ghanaian Minister of Education. She aimed to make education free and accessible to everyone in Ghana, a goal common in many post-colonial countries. After 18 months, it became clear that this would not be possible, and she resigned from her position.
Aidoo lived in Zimbabwe for several years, where she worked on developing curriculum for the Zimbabwean government. She then lived in the UK, the US, and Ghana, working in education in all three countries. Aidoo wrote extensively throughout her career, addressing topics of African identity, feminism, and post-colonial theory, and is often regarded as the leader of the first generation of post-colonial women writers in West Africa, inspiring writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Tsitsi Dangarembga, and Helen Oyeyemi.
Aidoo died in 2023 in Accra, the capital of Ghana, after a brief illness. She was given a state funeral honoring her life, her work, and her dedication to her country. Other works by Aidoo include Anowa (1970), Someone Talking to Sometime (1986), and Changes: A Love Story (1991).
Historical Context: Decolonization in West Africa
Many countries in Africa underwent a process of decolonization in the 1950s and ’60s. Ghana, the home country of both Aidoo and Sissie, became independent from British colonial rule in 1957. Led by Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah, the country underwent a process of “Africanization,” in which colonial roles and power structures were replaced with African ones. In 1960, following a referendum and election, Nkrumah declared Ghana a republic and became its first president.
Nkrumah was a socialist; he nationalized industrial and energy projects, implemented a national education system, and encouraged the establishment of a unified national identity. He promoted the ideal of Pan-Africanism, emphasizing the shared history of all Africans as a reason to unite as one people. He championed Ghanaian and African culture and enabled women to become involved in politics, education, medicine, and law. In 1966, Nkrumah’s government was overthrown by a CIA-backed military coup d’etat. Following the coup, Ghana aligned itself politically with Western powers that it had previously been distant from due to Nkrumah’s socialist policies.
The road to independence looked slightly different in other West African countries. Nigeria, for example, gained self-rule in 1954 and full independence from the United Kingdom in 1960. The first government of Nigeria was a coalition government, with power divided between Hausa and Igbo ethnic groups. Like Ghana, Nigeria underwent a coup d’etat in 1966 where soldiers assassinated a number of politicians and army officers, including the prime minister. The coup sparked the Nigerian Civil War, also called the Biafran War, which from 1967 until 1970 split the country into two warring territories. It is estimated that close to one million people died, mostly from starvation and disease.
Following the civil war, Nigeria was ruled by a military dictatorship and only held democratic elections again in 1999. Burkina Faso, another West African country referenced in Our Sister Killjoy, gained independence from French colonial rule in 1958 under the name Upper Volta. A coup d’etat in 1966 placed the country under military rule. After a series of coups in the 1970s and ’80s, Thomas Sankara came to power. As Prime Minister, Sankara led his country toward democracy, changing its name to Burkina Faso. He improved women’s rights, increased access to health and education, and bolstered the economy.
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