Ambivalent Narratives of Traditional African Womanhood as Normalising Discourse in Ama Ata Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost

Abstract

Feminist critics of African literature have observed that the domination of African literary outputs by male writers has led to romanticised and negative portrayals of the female character in contemporary African literature. Male writers have been accused (and often rightly so) of valorising and projecting the female character as not only docile and passive, but largely dependent on menfolk for her basic sustenance and survival (Ajayi 1997; Nfah-Abbenyi 1997).  

   According to these critics, African literature written by men has predominantly robbed the female character of the power of agency, often idealising and romanticising her as fragile and weak. The female character is often conflated with Mother Africa as she is also presented as the ultimate symbol of human fecundity. In those rare instances when she has been credited with the power of agency, she has been portrayed as rebellious, evil and constitutive of mortal threats to stability and social equilibrium.

   Be that as it may, a considerable number of contemporary African women writers have striven to circumvent these negative portrayals of the female character. They seek to offer more dynamic representations of female subjectivity in African literature. In this paper, however, I argue that Ama Ata Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost presents the reader with striking narratives of traditional African womanhood, which are at once nearly equally progressive and regressive. I argue that whereas Aidoo’s play challenges traditional patriarchy by subverting certain discriminatory female stereotypes and normative perceptions of women that are prevalent in traditional African societies, the play nevertheless exudes an ambivalent attitude towards female emancipation. I also argue that this ambivalent attitude unwittingly reinforces the very negative images of the female character which Aidoo sets out to subvert.

Opsomming

Feministiese kritici van Afrika-literatuur het opgemerk dat die oorheersing van Afrika-literatuurbydraes deur manlike skrywers gelei het tot geromantiseerde en negatiewe uitbeeldings van die vroulike karakter in hedendaagse Afrika-literatuur. Manlike skrywers is (dikwels met reg) daarvan beskuldig dat hulle die vroulike karakter valoriseer en nie net as onderdanig en passief uitbeeld nie, maar ook as grotendeels afhanklik van mans vir haar basiese lewensonderhoud en vir oorlewing (Ajayi 1997; Nfah-Abbenyi 1997).

   Volgens hierdie kritici het Afrika-literatuur wat deur mans geskryf is, die vroulike karakter hoofsaaklik ontneem van die mag van bemiddeling, deurdat sy altyd as broos en swak geïdealiseer en geromantiseer word. Die vroulike karakter word dikwels vereenselwig met Moeder Afrika aangesien sy ook voorgestel word as dié simbool van menslike vrugbaarheid. In uitsonderlike gevalle waar die mag van bemiddeling wel aan haar toegeken word, word sy uitgebeeld as rebels, boos en deel van dodelike gevare vir stabiliteit en sosiale ewewig.

   Hoe dit ook al sy, heelwat van vandag se vroulike skrywers uit Afrika streef om hierdie negatiewe uitbeeldings van die vroulike karakter te omseil. Hulle probeer om meer dinamiese voorstellings van vroulike subjektiwiteit in Afrika-literatuur te bewerkstellig. In hierdie opstel voer ek egter aan dat The Dilemma of a Ghost deur Ama Ata Aidoo opvallende narratiewe van die tradisionele rol van vroue in Afrika voorhou, en dit is terselfdertyd ewe progressief as regressief. Ek wys daarop dat hoewel Aidoo se drama tradisionele vaderreg betwis deur sekere diskriminerende vroulike stereotipes en normatiewe persepsies oor vroue wat algemeen voorkom in tradisionele Afrika-gemeenskappe omver te werp, die drama nietemin ʼn teenstrydige houding teenoor vroulike emansipasie uitstraal. Ek voer ook aan dat hierdie teenstrydige houding onbewustelik juis die negatiewe beelde van die vroulike karakter wat Aidoo probeer omverwerp, versterk.