20th century literature

1. Presented by:
Saira khan
Ahmed sarosh
Mubashir mehmood

2. About the author
• “Ama Ata Aidoo”
Ama Ata Aidoo was born in
a small village in Ghana's
centralFanti-speaking region
in 1942.
Her father had opened
the first school in the
village and was a strong
influence on her.
At the age of 15 she decided
that she wanted to be a
writer and within just four
years, she'd achieved that
ambition.
She was encouraged to enter
a newspaper short story
competition and only
discovered that she'd won it
when she saw her name in
the newspaper.
Aidoo studied literature at the
University of Ghana and
became a university lecturer.
Whilst there she produced
her first play in 1964.
In January 1982 she was
appointed Minister of Education.
As Minister, Aidoo wanted to
make education in Ghana freely
accessible to all - but after 18
months when she realised that
she couldn't achieve her aims
she resigned.

3. continued…
She moved to Zimbabwe
to become a full-time
writer and also lived and
taught in the USA.
She has won many literary
awards including the 1992
Commonwealth Writers
Prize for Best Book (Africa)
for Changes.

4. Dilemma of the ghost (introduction)
• THE DILEMMA OF A GHOST is essentially about a modern-day
culture clash
• THE DILEMMA OF A GHOST is a mesmerizing insight into some
traditional African culture.
• It is acted beautifully and simply.
• A variety of emotions is spread out through the play,
entwining humour, love, sadness and anger.
• THE DILEMMA OF A GHOST wonderfully incorporates culture
and entertainment. It tears you away from your Western life-
style and immerses you in the African way of living.

5. Continued..
• THE DILEMMA OF A GHOST – the ghosts being a
manifestation of slavery. Ato’s harrowing dream -
that seems to come out of no where - of two
children that sing the ghost of a slave song, turns
into a violent and terrifying scene in which a
doubled-over Eulalie takes on the character of a slave
who is repeatedly whipped.
• THE DILEMMA OF A GHOST was indeed an engaging
and refreshing production to watch and proved to be
a real African Classic.

6. Themes
• In her play the Themes of:
• Education
• Identity
• Clash of culture
• Marriage
• childbirth

7. Plot summary …
• Dilemma of a Ghost covers more than a year in
the life of the Yawson family, but presents the
action in brief snippets spread out over time.
• Thus, Aidoo presents the degeneration of Ato
Yawson’s relationship with his family as a
realistically slow progression; at the beginning of
each scene, conversation between characters fills
in the gap of unrepresented time.

8. Continued..
• The Bird of the Wayside disappears, and Ato
enters onstage with his wife, Eulalie, an African
American. She and Ato fell in love at school and
now he has brought her to his homeland to live.
• In this brief introductory scene, the audience sees
the young couple’s anxiety and optimism. They
know they are embarking on a difficult project of
cultural reconciliation, but they are confident
they will master the situation.

9. Continued…
• For her part, Eulalie is ecstatic to be in Africa:
“To belong to somewhere again … sure this
must be bliss” (Aidoo, Dilemma of a Ghost, p.
9).

10. Act 1
• Act One proper begins with the two village
women, the First Neighbor Woman and
Second Neighbor Woman, who will serve as
chorus, commenting on the action of the play.
They provide important information and
reinforce the themes of family interaction in
the story of the Yawsons.

11. Continued…
• The first woman is childless and laments this
fact; the second argues that children are as
much a burden as a help. They argue this
point over Esi Kom, Ato’s mother. The second
woman claims Esi has gone into debt to
finance her son’s education. But now that he
is educated, the first woman points out, he
can get a highpaying job to pay all her debts.

12. Act 2..
• Act Two consists of two brief scenes. First, the
two women return and discuss the obligations
of children to their parents.
• This discussion provides a counterpoint to a
soliloquy by Eulalie, which follows
immediately. In a page and a half, Eulalie
recalls her life in the United States and her
continual dissatisfaction with racial
inequality.

13. Act 3…
• Act Three takes place six months later. A boy and
a girl sneak into the Yawsons’ house to play hide
and seek.
• They sing the song that gives the play its title, the
song of a ghost at a crossroads, who cannot
decide whether he should go to Cape Coast or to
Elmina.
• The song awakens Ato from an afternoon nap; he
is upset because it gave him a bad dream.
• This brief scene sets the tone for the explosion
that follows.

14. Act 4..
• The fourth act takes place six months later. The
occasion is the annual sprinkling of the stools, a
ceremony that celebrates the family’s ancestors.
(A stool represents one’s ancestors—some
families keep one stool while others keep one for
each of its former heads of clans.
• In any case, sprinkling the stool with water or
wine is a way to recall the ancestors and
propitiate them so that they will ensure a
profitable year.)

15. Continued..
• It is a time of great concentration on family,
heritage, and obligations—all the things that
Ato has ignored. The act begins, again, with
the two village women. They repeat the
rumors that Ato has not given money to his
family, and that Eulalie spends all their wages
on machines.

16. Act 5
• Eulalie is not coming to Ato's family dinner.
Everything escalates to Eulalie bashing Ato's
family and Ghanaian culture. Ato retaliates
with racial slurs and ultimately 'smacks her on
the cheek'.
1st and 2nd women begin gossiping about the
poor nature or Ato and Eulalie's relationship.

17. Continued
•
Ato is infront of Esi's house knocking at his door. Esi learns that
'Eulalie is gone', and that Ato has no idea where she is. She then
learns of Ato and Eulalie's use of contraception and is visibly
shocked 'Human beings deciding when they must have children?'
'Meanwhile, where is God?'. Then realises that Ato has been hiding
the truth from his family and causing them to assume Eulalie is
barren. Eulalie appears and 'nearly crumples in front of the
courtyard'. Esi rushes to her aid, 'Come, my child'. Tells Ato off
making it clear she did not approve of his decision to hide the truth
from his family.
Ends with an omniscient voice demonstrating dilemmas and the
confusion and frustration which comes along with it.