Novel by Ama Ata Aidoo.

1. Our Sister Killjoy
Ama Ata Aidoo
Dhanesh Sebastian

2. Ama Ata Aidoo is a Ghanaian author, poet, playwright
and academic. She was the Minister of Education..

4. The racial stereotypical image of the African as an inferior savage
standing as an obstacle in the way of civilization has been established
and perpetuated in Western literature, art and media throughout
centuries.
Within the theoretical framework of colonialism/postcolonialism,
eurocentrism, orientalism, deconstruction and other interdisciplinary
fields, Ama Ata Aidoo‟s Our Sister Killjoy intends to highlight the role of
the postcolonial African novel, as counter-discourse, in deconstructing
the colonial narrative and challenging stereotypes.
Shows how the postcolonial writers, by „writing back to the Empire‟,
have protested against Western ways of categorizing others.

5. Postcolonial African novels have become real
weapons used to dismantle the hegemonic
boundaries and determinants that create unequal
relations of power, based on binary oppositions such
as “Us and Them”, “First World and Third World”,
“White and Black” ,“Colonizer and Colonized”, etc.

6. Modern Western colonialism can be traced back to the 15th century,
the “Age of Discovery‟. However, the European colonial and
imperial expansion can be divided into three broad waves.
The first wave was focused on the Americas, the North and the
South, and the Caribbean.
The second was focused on Asia,
while the third extended European control into Africa.
In short, the era from the 15th century to the mid-20th century
identified the European colonial period.

7. About the Novel
Our Sister Killjoy: or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint is the debut novel of
Ghanaian author Ama Ata Aidoo
is about a young African woman named Sissie who goes to Europe to "better" herself
(with European education) as described by her African counterparts. The novel revolves
around themes of black diaspora and colonialism, in particular colonization of the mind.
Sissie observes the other Africans who have emigrated (also for education and the
desire for a better life in Europe) and sees them as "sell-outs" who have forgotten their
culture and their motherland
Aidoo touches on the effects of post-colonialism and how the traditions and thoughts of the colonizer
are instilled into the minds of the colonized. Sissie in the novel represents the need to have a
connection to one's past.

8. Aidoo is critical of Africans' adulation of Europeans.
The first thing Sissie notices upon going into the town in Germany
are shiny and glittery material possessions.
Aidoo critiques the way some Africans buy into the notion of white
superiority, by turning to Europe when they are looking for the
"best," whether in education or material possessions.
The book is split into four different sections and, in its form, the
novel switches between two voices: verse and prose.

11. The Four sections
1. Into a Bad Dream
2. The Plums
3. From Our Sister Killjoy
4. A Love Letter

12. “Our Sister Killjoy” -Summary
The novel is divided into four sections. The first is called Into a Bad Dream where she
travels to Germany. Her elite hosts took every care to make her comfortable, from
luxurious Mercedes-Benz that comes to pick her to lavish dinner and expensive
European wine. She meets Sammy, who is her fellow countryman, whose real name
she “did not catch.” Sammy laughs loudly and when she does not laugh, he smiles
continuously. Sissie feels he had been placed there to sing praises of the European
land. She feels shivered and uneasy. She eventually realizes that she is the only black
person there, though she does not feel insecure or inferior of her identity or race. The
section ends with “power to decide/ Who is to live/ Who is to die.” ; which throws
some light on the colonial and the post colonial aspect of the novel, considering it was
power which decided who survived and who died.

13. The next section is titled as “The Plums” where Sissie befriends Marija
Sommer, a German lady whose husband is never home. She, later on,
develops an attraction towards Sissie. Marija asks Sissie about her native
place to which Sissie replies it’s Ghana. Marija asks if it is near Canada.
Sissie is ridiculed. It was ignorance on Marija’s part that Sissie finds
uncanny.
Marija plucks fresh plums for Sissie everyday and showers her with food
and other gifts. Sissie compares herself to the rare and luscious plums:
“Youthful, knowing you are Rare, Feeling Free and Being Loved’. Sissie also
gained attention from Marija’s neighbors due to her regular visits. She was
an exotic object and they’d question Marija about her.

14. A lot of verse that follows talks about colonization, discussing the post-
independence struggle that that African continent now faced. Aidoo,
through the novel, also comments upon the structured gendered roles,
ideals, and stereotypes that circulated like, “It is not sound for a enjoy
cooking for other woman. Not under any circumstances.”
The section ends with Marija expressing her love for Sissie while she feels
superior because of the power she exerts over Marija. Marija comes to see
off Sissie, bringing with her plums, pastries and other things to say the last
goodbye. Sissie leaves the town for Munich.

15. The third section is named From Our Sister Killjoy, she travels to London
this time. “England is another thing” She says. There were men, women
and children everywhere, they appeared wretched. She watches her
own people deserted and poorly clothed. Women and children in
pitiful condition, dressed up in rags, making desperate but
unsuccessful attempts to keep themselves warm. She’s anguished to
see her people leaving the warm homes of Africa to live there in chilly
winters of London. She does not understand that the unfree
population thinks that they’ll do well of themselves, not realizing
they’ll run very fast just to remain in the same place. She is also
distressed by the fact that they never told the truth at home.

16. Sissie meets Ghanaian self-exile, Kunle, who believes that the problems
of apartheid will be solved by Western technology. He elucidated his
point by stating the fact that a "good Christian" white South African
doctor used the heart of a black man for a transplant to keep an old
white man alive. When questioned by Sissie and her friend on which
hearts were used in earlier attempts at transplants, he answers eagerly,
"He must have experimented on the hearts of dogs and cats". Sissie
realizes Kunle values the colonizer’s world more than his own and
belongs to the category of “been-to” who come home to complain and
exploit rather than build a nation and improve the conditions of its
material environment.

17. Aidoo emphasizes the dire conditions and necessities which force families to
beg for aid and to hope that the prestige associated with being a 'been-to' will
improve their living conditions. This can be seen in the letter to Kunle from
his mother when she says:
"I am not begging you for money. Am I not a mother? Do I not know
you need money yourself, and if I was rich like my friends, would I not send
you some myself? But my son, there is nothing here at all.(..)“
● Sissie soon realizes that the land treats animals like humans and vice-
versa. The section ends with Kunle’s death, his car being burned down to
ashes.

18. The fourth and the final section is titled as A Love Letter, which what
Chimalum Nwankwo has rightly called a "confrontational" love letter. The
tone of the section is relatively calmer as compared to the previous three.
Sissie writes this letter to her lover who has decided to remain in exile. But
instead of it being a dialogue between a man and a woman, it looks more as if
Sissie is speaking her mind. The letter is more political in nature than
romantic. Sissie is a killjoy, who asks her lover and others in exile to come out
of their delusions and forces them to acknowledge their duties towards there
motherland. Sissie is troubled that she cannot speak to her lover in no other
but the colonial language, distancing them, inflamed by the fact that he does
not see this as an issue. What he considers a problem is that she is too
aggressive, too outspoken, "too serious".

19. She wishes that she’d stop confronting him, rather he’d now hold her in
his arms. For Sissie, her desire for this man comes in direct opposition
to her strength as an African woman as she states:
“They say that any female in my position would have thrown away
everything to be with you, and remain with you: first her opinions, and
then her own plans. But...what did I rather do but daily and loudly
criticize you and your friends for wanting to stay forever in alien
places.. ..Maybe I regret that I could not shut up and meekly look up to
you... but you see, no one ever taught me such meekness.”

20. In this love letter, Sissie recounts her meetings with the African self-exiles.
Sissie speaks out at an African student union meeting. They spend hours
discussing the political situation of Africa but do not see the denial of their
services as part of the problem. In the final line of Sissie's letter, she recalls
what her lover asked her when they met: "I know everyone calls you Sissie,
but what is your name?" We do not know her real name, but she is a
messenger of her kin to the land of exiles. She ends her letter as the plane
moves towards West African coast. She decides not to send it. She’ll tell the
tales back home.

21. References:
https://www.gradesaver.com/our-sister-killjoy/study-guide/summary
https://codesria.org/IMG/pdf/Kehinde.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Sister_Killjoy
https://prezi.com/

22. Thank You…