3. About the author
• Christina Ama Aidoo better known as Ama Ata Aidoo, was born on 23rd March
1942 in Abeadzi Kyiakor, near Saltpond, Ghana. She is an author, poet and a
playwright. She attended Wesley Girls’ High School in Cape Coast. In 1964, Aidoo
enrolled in the University of Ghana Legon, to pursue Bachelor of Arts in English.
In 1982, she was appointed Minister of Education in Ghana, making her the first
woman to hold that position.
• Throughout her career, Aidoo has been feminist. Women in general, mothers and
daughters in particular, figure prominently in her work. While she was a student,
she wrote her first play, The Dilemma of a Gost. The play, initially staged in 1965,
was published the following year, making Aidoo the first published African
woman dramatist. She followed that up with Anowa (drama 1970).
4. About the author
• Since then, she has published novels, short stories, volumes of poetry and stories
for children. Her works include Our Sister Killjoy(1977), Changes (1991), An Angry
Letter in January & Other Poems (1992), The Girl Who Can & Other Stories (1997)
and Diplomatic Pounds & Other Stories(2012).
5. PLOT
Narrated from the first person point of view, ‘The Girl Who Can’, is about a seven year
old girl who struggles to fight for her rights as a girl.
• The story’s protagonist is Adjoa, a little African girl who resides in Hasodzi, a farming
village in the Central Region of Ghana with her mother, Maami and Nana, her mother’s
mother. Ajoa lives in a judging society who think her ideas and opinions don’t matter.
• Her society doesn’t believe that women should go to school can express their opinions.
• Her society thinks that women truest role is to become wife, bear children, and serve
the family.
6. PLOT
Adwoa was born with spindly legs that are too long for a woman, and too thin to
be used for anything ‘womanly’.
For Nana, Adjoa’s legs have no thick muscles on them and neither does she have
thick and solid hips that can carry a baby. Nana is skeptical about the Ajoa’s future
because of this.
Solid hips and thick legs exhibit biological signs of robustness which according to
Nana promise fertility and strength.
For Nana, and, for the entire society, the definition of a perfect and powerful
woman is one who can bear children and be a perfect wife and mother.
7. PLOT
• Adjoa finds it hard to understand how someone’s body sets limits on who they
can be and cannot be.
• With her ‘imperfection’, she proves to people around her that she still can
achieve something great. She does this by concentrating on her strength,
running .
• With the thin legs, Adjoa participates in the school’s athletics, emerges the over
all best and wins trophies for her school and further, the district.
8. PLOT
• Ironically her grandmother, Nana becomes very proud of her. Nana follows her to
the school and carries the trophy on her back home.
• Nana concludes that “…even though some legs don’t have meat on them, to
carry hips…they can run…” (p. 148).
• ‘The girl who can’, can be summarizes as Adjoa’s struggle to find her rightful place
in the society, it’s her story of seeking answers to the needs and issues of society.
• The story brings the role and the struggle women in Africa go through.
9. CHARACTERS
• The story is a beautiful portrayal of three distinct female characters: Ajoa, Maami and
Nana who give us the three faces of society.
• ADJOA
• She is the main character and narrator of the story.
• Adjoa’s concentration on her strengths without being burdened by her imperfect body
makes her an inspiring character in her society.
• In adjoa, we see a self-reflection for every woman who ever questioned her standing in
society. In Adjoa, we see women who still believe that persistence can break barriers.
. Ajoa symbolizes liberation. Liberation from society’s definition of “perfect” woman.
10. • Adjoa is an embodiment of an analytical child who is confused about how adults
would accept her opinions
• : And my problem is that at this seven years of age, there are things I can think in my head, but
which, maybe, I do not have the proper language to speak them out with.” …And that, I think, is a
very serious problem because it is always difficult to decide whether to keep quiet and not say any
of the things that come into my head, or say them and get laughed at. Not that it is easy to get any
grown-up to listen to you, even when you decide to take the risk and say something serious to
them. (The Girl Who Can: 87)
•
11. CHARACTERS
• She also reveals that children/ the vulnerable must be listened to and not
laughed at when they go wrong
• I have to struggle to catch her attention. Then I tell her something I had taken a long time to
figure out……She would at once stop whatever she is doing and, mouth open, stare at me for a
very long time. Then, bending and turning her head slightly, so that one ear comes down
towards me, she’ll say in that voice: “Adjoa, you say what?” After I have repeated whatever I
had said, she would either, still in that voice, ask me “never, never, but NEVER to repeat THAT,”
or she would immediately burst out laughing. She would laugh and laugh and laugh, until tears
run down her cheeks and she would stop whatever she is doing and wipe away the tears with
the hanging edges of her cloth.
12. CHARACTERS
• in Ajoa we see that Children need attention from adults
• ……Not that it is easy to get any grown-up to listen to you, even when you decide
to take the risk and say something serious to them. (The Girl Who Can: 87)
•
•
13. CHARACTERS
MAAMI
Maami is Ajoa’s mother.
• Like every other parent, Maami wants the best for her child.
• In Maami, we see a glimpse of a mother who wants to give her daughter what
she was denied.
• Maami is constrained by society, represented by Nana, to speak out
• Though unhappy of Nana’s disapproving words about Adjoa’s legs, she only
makes weak protests.
• Nana’s constant nagging about the nature of man Maami married, further
weakens her resolve.
• In Maami we see a weak and submissive woman tamed by society.
14. CHARACTERS
• NANA
• Being a grandmother, one would have expected her to be repository of wisdom
• But she is presented as an insensitive character. Nana represents the real face of a patriarchal
society
• She is hell-bent on degrading a woman and denying the woman her self-worth.
• Nana has lived all her life according to the society’s perspective and it is safe to assume that
Nana could’ve herself been a victim of indifference.
• Nana embodies society’s typical expectation of the Female----to be quiet and submissive.
15. CHARACTERS
• Nana can be described as a round character. Nana’s attitude Alters positively
toward Adjoa when she realizes that her long thin legs are of use after all.
• Nana concludes:
• saa, thin legs can also be useful . . . thin legs can also be useful . . .even though
some legs don’t have much meat on them, to carry hips . . . they can run.
16. THEMES
The story resonates with the struggles of the emancipation of women. The
following themes can be adduced from the story.
Women are not only fit as child bearers or wives. Aidoo highlights the fact that a
woman doesn’t have to be married and give birth to be perfect. Aidoo wants
readers to see that stereotyping of woman which is created by society has to come
to an end. Any imperfect condition a woman has which is defined by society,
doesn’t define a woman.
17. THEMES
• Women can fight for their rights in society. Adjoa’s running and winning
symbolizes every woman’s struggle to break free from society’s barriers and
emerge triumphantly. Adjoa succeeds in proving everyone, especially Nana that
she can be powerful and worth to be proud of despite her physical condition that
counts her as imperfect.
• Emancipation begins at an individual level. When a hundred women liberate
themselves by doing their part, they move onto a further level.
18. THEMES
• Having an identity apart from that of mother and wife is not an anomaly for a
woman.
• Despite all the criticism that is thrown in Ajoa’s direction, none of it sticks to her.
Ajoa destroyed all of this criticism and changed Nana’s point of view and proved
that she can give her something precious. Nana walks to school with the narrator
and carries the winning cup home on her back(symbolically, like a baby).
19. It is good to be modest about ones achievements
• Ajoa’s abilities in running are normal for her.
• She doesn’t counteract anything Nana says about her legs by telling Nana
that she has legs that are suitable for running and that she is proud of
herself. She acts modestly. It is Nana and Maami who consider what she
has done to be an achievement.
20. • Growing up can be very challenging
• Aidoo subverts the traditional beliefs and assumptions about the
child's voice.
• The author asserts the importance of self-expression through the
narrator, Ajoa.
21. • conclusion
• The woman faces identity crisis ascribable to socially constructed dichotomies
and patriarchal ideologies. In ‘The Girl Who Can’ like its name suggests, the
protagonist destroyed all of this criticism and changed Nana and by extension
society’s point of view of a ‘normal woman’ and proved that she can.
