University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies Legacy Theses 2000 In my mother's house: a study of selected works by Ama Ata Aidoo and Buchi Emecheta Asante, Samuel Yaw Asante, S. Y. (2000). In my mother's house: a study of selected works by Ama Ata Aidoo and Buchi Emecheta (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/22036 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/39677 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY In My Mother's House: A Study of Selected Works by .4ma Ata Aidoo and Buchi Emecheta Samuel Yaw Asante A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH CALGARY, ALBERTA MARCH 2000 O Samuel Yaw Asante 2000 National Library Bibliotheque nationale I*I of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON KIA ON4 OttawaON KtAON4 Canada Canada Your 1Sk Votre relerm Our & Norre reldnmce The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permenant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, preter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de rnicrofiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othenvise de celle-ci ne doivent &re irnprirnes reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT African women writers openly lament, question, and criticise the neglect of their work; they also attack this neglect through the act of writing. Texts by African women writers seek to reclaim women's marginal positions and show them "as spaces of strength within and between which they fluctuate" (Nfah-Abbenyi 150). Post-colonial theory and most Western feminist theories have so far failed to problematize the position of African women. Through their act of writing these women's texts also provide insight into the ongoing debate in post-colonial-theory and Western feminist theories. In these texts we also see the interrelatedness of the problems that confront women and those that face the continent. The women contemplate an African wornanism. This study looks at texts by Arna Ata Aidoo and Buchi Emecheta, two of Africa's prolific writers. I offer a self- interpellative reading, a reading foregrounded in the "real history" of text and (con)text (Susan Andrade 94). I weave autobiography into my reading; this strategy gives me an approach that does not convey an "un-self-conscious appropriation" (Alcoff 24) of women's experiences. The autobiographical narrative does not only enable me to know the literature I study here through myself and myself through the literature, it also provides me with a "movement toward a politics of location," (Freedman, Frey and Murphy Zaubar lo), and establishes a link between the personal and the political. In the Introduction I argue for a critical approach that takes the cultural grounding of texts produced by African women into consideration. Chapter One is an autobiographical reading of Aidoo's No Sweetness Here. Chapter Two is a surveyic reading of Emecheta's Head Above Water and The Joys of Motherhood. This chapter serves as a bridge to my detailed reading of Aidoo's Changes: A Love Story and Our Sister Killjoy in Chapters Three and Four. I demonstrate through the reading of these texts that while these women reclaim space for themselves in African society, they address problems that face the continent as a whole. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My study in Calgary was made possible by financial assistance from the University and the Department of English. I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to both tht University and the Department for the opportunity I was given. I am also grateful to all the professors I worked with in the Department. I am particularly grateful to Dr. James Black who showed more than professional interest in my work in the Department, Dr. Aruna Srivastava supervised this thesis. In Dr. Srivastava I found boundless patience, empathy and support at very crucial stages of my writing. I am profoundly grateful to her. I also wish to thank members of my examining committee, especially Dr. Jeanne Perreault, and Dr. Stephen Slemon of the University of Alberta both of whom offered me insightful comments and useful advice. I have been wondering if I could have completed this thesis on schedule without the wonderful support which I enjoyed from my wife, Jocelyn Keith-Asante. Not only did Jocelyn intelligently discuss some of the issues raised in the study with me, she also offered tremendous assistance in its typing, and as well helped me in moments of doubt and frustration. I am very grateful to her. I would also like to thank my parents-in-law, Ruth and Dr. Walter Keith for their support and encouragement. I am grateful to some good friends, Jennifer Kelly and Hope Sabanpan-Yu, for their encouragement. I am equally grateful to my family in Ghana, especially Kwadwo and Kaakyire, for their moral support. And to my son, Nana Kwaku Sefa Asante, thanks so much for patiently waiting in Ghana all these years that I have been away. Nana, I left so that you might have a better life than I did. While I would like to share whatever credit this study may bring with all who helped me to produce it. I take solely any infelicities that may be identified with it. DEDICATION In loving memory of my mother, Yaa Mansa. Maame of the Agona clan whose totem is the parrot. You, like the parrot, never went to school but saw the wisdom in sending me to school. Madme, death did not allow you to reap the harvest of motherhood and mothering. Maame, AYEKOO. ~Yaame, neda wo ase. TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval page ........................................................................................................................... i Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ...............................................................................................................v Dedication .................................................................................................................................vi Table of Contents...................... .. .............................................................................vu . INTRODUCTION .CHARTING A CONTEXT ............................................................ 1 The Critics.................................................................................................................. 8 The Writers ............................................................................................................... 14 Politics of Representat ion.................................................................. 23 Women Writers and Society .....................................................................30 In My Mother's House ....................................................................................32 CHAPTER ONE: IN MY MOTHER'S HOUSE ........................................................... 47 CHAPTER TWO: A FEMINIST WITH A SKALL 'f' . BUCHI EMECHETA .....................................................................................................91 CHAPTER THREE: "IMAGES OF HELL" .CXANGES: A LOVE STORY................................................ ....................................................... 118 CHAPTER FOUR: "SWEETNESS AND SMOKY ROUGHAGE" OUR SISTER KILL JGY....................................................................................... 15 9 CONCLUSION : ........................................................................................................................... 19 9 WORKS CITED........................................................................................................................... 20 5 vii It was as if Maanan's face was all I would ever need to look at to know that this was a woman being pushed toward destruction and there was nothing she or I could do about it. She was smiling at me, but in myself I felt accused by a silence that belonged to millisns and ages of women all bearing the face and the form of Maanan, and needing no voice at all to tell me I had failed them, I and all the others who have been content to do nothing and to be noth- ing at all all our lives and through all the ages of their -.*Jzc--: 3ULLCL ILLY.-- - Ay2 Kwei Armah, The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yst Born I think that feminism is the business of both men and women anywhere, and in Africa. - Molars Ogundips-Leslie, Re-Crea ting Ourselves: African Women & Critical Transforma lions viii INTRODUCTION - CHARTING