What do you think?
Rate this book
Diplomatic Pounds & Other Stories
Collection of twelve short stories - some set in Ghana, some elsewhere - by renowned Ghanaian author
- GenresShort StoriesGhana
170 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
About the author
Ama Ata Aidoo
38 books411 followersAma Ata Aidoo was a Ghanaian author, poet, playwright, politician, and academic. She was Secretary for Education in Ghana from 1982 to 1983 under Jerry Rawlings's PNDC administration. Her first play, The Dilemma of a Ghost, was published in 1965, making Aidoo the first published female African dramatist. As a novelist, she won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 1992 with the novel Changes. In 2000, she established the Mbaasem Foundation in Accra to promote and support the work of African women writers.
(from Wikipedia)
(from Wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 13, 2026
A charming and well written collection of short stories on subjects from small everyday moments of human connection and separation, to massive life changing events and decisions.
I've been trying to read more short stories this year but did not want to limit myself to the classics so picked this book up having never heard of the author before and I'm very glad I did. Ama Ata Aidoo is a wonderful storyteller that I am very happy to have discovered.
These are some great examples of the short story medium. This is a heavily feminist work, while there are male characters, the majority are women and the themes mostly relate to them such as having children, the relationships between mothers and daughters and body image issues. The stories also, obviously, are all based in Africa or have African characters, particularly Ghanaian. Its a great insight into the religon, societal expectations and social issues in that country, such as gender roles, diaspora relations and colourism.
I really enjoyed the authors conversational prose and the way she writes dialogue, it was all very natural, both when a character was speaking to the reader and to another character. I also thought Aidoo has a wonderful way of describing emotions, some examples below:
"Pain that has nowhere to go, pain that breathes and moves like a pregnancy"
"Araba was saying this while feeling like her heart was shifting gears within her chest"
"Besides, like the sign of the cross to a ghoul, his happiness kept the tightness of uncertainty from squeezing out his heart completely"
The individual stories ranged from 3-5 stars for me so overall as a 4. My favourites were "No Nuts" and "Rain" both of which I think are perfect examples of how to write a short story. I recommend this book to anyone who wants something engaging, amusing and educational to dip in and out of.
I've been trying to read more short stories this year but did not want to limit myself to the classics so picked this book up having never heard of the author before and I'm very glad I did. Ama Ata Aidoo is a wonderful storyteller that I am very happy to have discovered.
These are some great examples of the short story medium. This is a heavily feminist work, while there are male characters, the majority are women and the themes mostly relate to them such as having children, the relationships between mothers and daughters and body image issues. The stories also, obviously, are all based in Africa or have African characters, particularly Ghanaian. Its a great insight into the religon, societal expectations and social issues in that country, such as gender roles, diaspora relations and colourism.
I really enjoyed the authors conversational prose and the way she writes dialogue, it was all very natural, both when a character was speaking to the reader and to another character. I also thought Aidoo has a wonderful way of describing emotions, some examples below:
"Pain that has nowhere to go, pain that breathes and moves like a pregnancy"
"Araba was saying this while feeling like her heart was shifting gears within her chest"
"Besides, like the sign of the cross to a ghoul, his happiness kept the tightness of uncertainty from squeezing out his heart completely"
The individual stories ranged from 3-5 stars for me so overall as a 4. My favourites were "No Nuts" and "Rain" both of which I think are perfect examples of how to write a short story. I recommend this book to anyone who wants something engaging, amusing and educational to dip in and out of.
October 22, 2017
Loved the stories and the characters
July 16, 2012
DUNDEE UNIVERSITY REVIEW OF THE ARTS
Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories
Ama Ata Aidoo
(Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2011); pbk, £8.79.
This collection of 12 short stories by the veteran Ghanian author Ama Ata Aidoo, reflects concerns with the displacement of people, particularly women, who move between two cultures: their African homeland and that of the developed world. Her work has inspired younger African authors such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who regards Aidoo as a mentor and role model.
Aidoo writes ‘between the lines’ in many of her stories. Often the narrative is fragmented, carried by a mixture of her protagonists’ inner thoughts, dialogue and sometimes by what we might call the cultural super ego, that is, the received mores of the larger culture in which the action takes place. This reflects the oral tradition of storytelling in African culture and can make for difficult reading for those raised in the European tradition of a fixed narrative. Endings are often left open to the conjecture of the reader.
‘No Nuts’ is a grieving woman’s memories of her close friend who has died after a complicated pregnancy. As she recounts tales of her friend’s life to a supportive listener, she repeatedly breaks down in tears, pulls herself together and continues. The reader is drawn deep inside the narrator’s grief, which is as much the story as are the recollections. The author skillfully recreates the conflict between inner and outer self at moments of bereavement; the need to speak and the difficulty of expressing grief.
In ‘Rain’, Affiye, a young African woman, goes to study in France where she meets a German man, Matty. The two form an almost instant bond, but any possibility of a relationship between them is extinguished by family pressures on both sides. Matty recognises the racism inherent in European languages that complicate and frustrate his profound attraction to Affiye. Language is problematic throughout;, "everything came to them loaded with implications. Everything. The sun, the moon, clothes, music and all other art forms" in addition to "those sinister stories that had been read to him when he was a baby, as well as those he had discovered for himself". Even though the couple can speak in English together, they share very little knowledge of each other’s culture and they seem separated by this as much as by their families’ disapproval.
Aidoo writes from a woman’s perspective. She does this to give a voice to the often unheard and unseen lives of women in Africa. Her chief protagonists are women and the reader is invited to share her characters’ inner lives as much as the outer narrative. In this, she could be seen as ‘writing back’ to celebrated African male authors such as Chinua Achebe, who tended to focus on the challenges to cultural notions of masculinity and power that colonialism brought.
The story which provides the book’s title, Diplomatic Pounds, is a wry observation of the Diplomatic Service and African people within that world. The narrative is taken up by the wife of an African Ambassador, who is concerned about her daughter Cecille’s eating disorder and her obsession with weight. Cecille believes that in order to fulfil the family’s diplomatic function, she must embrace the cuisines of every nation represented at the Embassy. Her mother seems to be equally obsessed with how others will ‘weigh up’ the family and is desperate to hide, or mask, her daughter’s problems. The story addresses cultural stereotypes and the pressures to conform to a Western notion of normality that is plainly eating this family up.
Diplomatic Pounds always focuses on human relationships rather than big events. Aidoo adheres to postmodern concerns, where grand narrative is replaced by microcosmic interpersonal dynamic. But there is humour and a cultural self-deprecation in this collection too. This is a book which shows the complexity of African women’s lives through the degrees of success that her characters achieve in negotiating the demands of cultural expectations.
Jenny Gorrod
http://www.dura-dundee.org.uk/Fiction... Return to the top of the view
Also a review from The Guardian
http://www.ayebia.co.uk/products/31/d...
Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories
Ama Ata Aidoo
(Ayebia Clarke Publishing, 2011); pbk, £8.79.
This collection of 12 short stories by the veteran Ghanian author Ama Ata Aidoo, reflects concerns with the displacement of people, particularly women, who move between two cultures: their African homeland and that of the developed world. Her work has inspired younger African authors such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who regards Aidoo as a mentor and role model.
Aidoo writes ‘between the lines’ in many of her stories. Often the narrative is fragmented, carried by a mixture of her protagonists’ inner thoughts, dialogue and sometimes by what we might call the cultural super ego, that is, the received mores of the larger culture in which the action takes place. This reflects the oral tradition of storytelling in African culture and can make for difficult reading for those raised in the European tradition of a fixed narrative. Endings are often left open to the conjecture of the reader.
‘No Nuts’ is a grieving woman’s memories of her close friend who has died after a complicated pregnancy. As she recounts tales of her friend’s life to a supportive listener, she repeatedly breaks down in tears, pulls herself together and continues. The reader is drawn deep inside the narrator’s grief, which is as much the story as are the recollections. The author skillfully recreates the conflict between inner and outer self at moments of bereavement; the need to speak and the difficulty of expressing grief.
In ‘Rain’, Affiye, a young African woman, goes to study in France where she meets a German man, Matty. The two form an almost instant bond, but any possibility of a relationship between them is extinguished by family pressures on both sides. Matty recognises the racism inherent in European languages that complicate and frustrate his profound attraction to Affiye. Language is problematic throughout;, "everything came to them loaded with implications. Everything. The sun, the moon, clothes, music and all other art forms" in addition to "those sinister stories that had been read to him when he was a baby, as well as those he had discovered for himself". Even though the couple can speak in English together, they share very little knowledge of each other’s culture and they seem separated by this as much as by their families’ disapproval.
Aidoo writes from a woman’s perspective. She does this to give a voice to the often unheard and unseen lives of women in Africa. Her chief protagonists are women and the reader is invited to share her characters’ inner lives as much as the outer narrative. In this, she could be seen as ‘writing back’ to celebrated African male authors such as Chinua Achebe, who tended to focus on the challenges to cultural notions of masculinity and power that colonialism brought.
The story which provides the book’s title, Diplomatic Pounds, is a wry observation of the Diplomatic Service and African people within that world. The narrative is taken up by the wife of an African Ambassador, who is concerned about her daughter Cecille’s eating disorder and her obsession with weight. Cecille believes that in order to fulfil the family’s diplomatic function, she must embrace the cuisines of every nation represented at the Embassy. Her mother seems to be equally obsessed with how others will ‘weigh up’ the family and is desperate to hide, or mask, her daughter’s problems. The story addresses cultural stereotypes and the pressures to conform to a Western notion of normality that is plainly eating this family up.
Diplomatic Pounds always focuses on human relationships rather than big events. Aidoo adheres to postmodern concerns, where grand narrative is replaced by microcosmic interpersonal dynamic. But there is humour and a cultural self-deprecation in this collection too. This is a book which shows the complexity of African women’s lives through the degrees of success that her characters achieve in negotiating the demands of cultural expectations.
Jenny Gorrod
http://www.dura-dundee.org.uk/Fiction... Return to the top of the view
Also a review from The Guardian
http://www.ayebia.co.uk/products/31/d...
November 20, 2012
Diplomatic Pounds and Other Stories (Ayebia Clarke 2012; 170) by Ama Ata Aidoo is a collection of twelve beautifully written short stories, which confirms the author’s position as a foremost writer in Africa and beyond. Treating everyday subject with unique perspectives and a delicate style that she alone possesses, Aidoo opens up old traditions and questions long-held views with fresh views. Whether it is about the story of a woman who leaves the country of her birth swearing never to return or the story of a group of girls trapped in an alien culture where issues of feminine proportions are at variance with what they had grown up with, Aidoo shows that her sense of observation is as sharp as ever and that there is tradition in every situation that could be questioned.
continue here http://freduagyeman.blogspot.com/2012...
continue here http://freduagyeman.blogspot.com/2012...
April 1, 2013
So refreshing to feel Aidoo's still got it. Lots of gender, girl power, Black identity, African identity, interracial love, transAtlantic identity hullabuloo wrapped in stories you can believe and understand and relate to... simple.
Read
March 7, 2014Fiction A2885d 2012
July 5, 2014
The more of her that I read, the more I like her.
August 5, 2023
My favourite stories are 'No Nuts' followed by 'Outfoxed' and 'Feely-Feely.'
May 1, 2017
Interesting read... check out our podcast discussing it here https://soundcloud.com/the-sankofa-bo...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews