Anowa

by Ama Ata Aidoo

Drama / Anthology

Genres: Plays, African Literature, Africa, School, Read For School, Fiction, Ghana

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Ama 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)

Reviews

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished another play for my World Masterpieces class. This time we read a play from Ghana by Ama Ata Aidoo called Anowa. Written in the 1970’s but set in the 1870’s Anowa follows the namesake character around 19th century Ghana or as they call it in the play The Gold Coast. Anowa is the opposite of all the traditional women in her village and she runs away with a husband she chose for herself. This play is very short but brings forth interesting ideas about women’s roles, mental health, slavery, and participation in society. But it also doesn’t explicitly give you an answer to any of those ideas. It simply proposes them and leaves them for you to decide what to do with them. I’d say the play is also a tragedy as it gets incredibly sad but it’s super deep all the way through. Anowa is such a strong and amazing character, her name literally means “superior moral force” and she is just that. When faced with parents who both fight over the life they want her to have Anowa runs away to live the life she wants. And we see many times some ideas that are brought up with her husband and if she didn’t want it she would stand tall and deny it. Even when her traditional husband didn’t take her opinion to count she was angry about his decisions. Both Anowa and her husband Kofi struggle with mental illness in the play. Anowa for not getting to be the woman she wants to be and Kofi for a reason I’ll leave for you to learn. The play at its core is a struggle between opposing ideologies and each character has a pair that thinks opposite of them. Anowa’s father and her mother, Anowa and Kofi, and the male narrator and female narrator. Each person is an opposite of their pair and it brings interesting dialogue to a 30ish page play. I really enjoyed it though and it’s one of my favorite plays we’ve read in this class. I would for sure recommend it, and you can read it in just about an hour. Ama Ata Aidoo crafted a wonderful and thoughtful play with an amazing central character for African Women and just women in general to look up to (to a point, don’t exactly follow the characters footsteps). This is a 9/10 (4.5/5 stars) for me. Give it a read if you can. -Tyler.

[Erinayo Adediwura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was genuinely a phenomenal play that interrogated Anowa's contradictory essence of trying to be a person and the gender expectations she was constantly subsumed too which led to such a tragic ending. Anywho genuinely a great refresher and I enjoyed reading the play

Reread this play for a class, will forever still be phenomenal. October 7, 2025

[LocdInBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anowa was my first feminist heroine inspite of her story being a tradegy and subsequently a cautionary tale about children we choose to dance to the rhythm of their own drum instead of listening to the advice of elders.

Although, at the forefront, it talks about pride and stubbornness, having money not being synonymous with happiness and the need to treat everyone with dignity (women, men, chn, slaves), rereading this play opened my eyes to more themes like gender roles, mental health and independence. Ama's style of writing and the story itself is also very witty and engaging.

Although quite being short play with a doomed protagonist, Anowa tells a story of how we can choose to be ourselves and hope to be "a better person if we [society] had not been what we [society] are."

[ｲirnom · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's ability to elicit immense sadness seizes you unaware. An addition to the list of outstanding tragedies i've read.

"Someone should have taught me
how to grow up to be a woman. I hear in other lands a woman is nothing. And they let her know this from the day of her birth. But here, O my spirit mother, they let a girl grow up as she pleases until she is married. And then
she is like any woman anywhere: in order for her man to be a man, she must not think, she must not talk. O—o, why didn’t someone teach me how to grow up to be a woman?"

[adwoa fosuaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is a masterpiece of literature and i truly believe that everybody should read it. i read this quite a while ago, like a good number of people here it was a required read for my Literature class but i only came to leave a review now because I just remembered how much this text has been review bombed by terrible ratings and i simply cannot wrap my head around why. this piece deserves nothing less than 4.5 stars, and for good reason. Aidoo is truly a master of embedding every single aspect of her text—dialogue, stage directions, pacing—with so much intentionality and detail that it is impossible to read this book without falling in-love with it. i’ve never forgotten about this play for even a second since i first encountered it, i absolutely recommend to anyone thinking of picking it up. don’t let these reviews fool you.

that being said, i think it is worth nothing that this entire book is transliterated language so a major part of my adoration for Aidoo’s writing comes from the fact that I am Ghanaian and understand the art of the language as intended in its original language, Fante. in my opinion, people who do not understand the language or culture or at least have the least bit of appreciation or knowledge on how it is spoken will have a really shallow perception of the book and what makes it such an amazing read.

[elliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Ghanaian myself, this was one of my first introductions to Ghanaian literature, and an excellent one at that. However I was not too satisfied with the ending as I felt it contradictory. It also felt like although the primary message the book was trying to push was a critique about women’s roles in society, seemingly all paths for Anowa were dictated by society, marriage or a priestess. So did she die because she chose to get married due to societal pressures, albeit to a man of her choice, instead of becoming a priestess as everyone deemed was better suiting? Maybe I’m just missing the point but it’s a great read nonetheless, I recommend.

[Jacques · Rating 4 out of 5]

Otra obra más de Ata Aidoo.

En Dilemma of a Ghost tenemos un choque cultural bastante explícito. En cambio, en Anowa el choque que presenta Ata Aidoo es entre dos posibles futuros. El inicio del auge del comercio esclavista y una mujer que busca su emancipación. Los cambios se dan de manera progresiva, escalas de grises y todo lo bien e interesante que también tiene Dilemma of a Ghost.

#MayoAfricano:
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[Cameryn Celestina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really beautiful African writing. One of my favorite quotes comes from this play. I read this and wrote a paper on this play for a theatre class. This work discusses how African women are portrayed by society and how they are influenced by men and family. The plot was relatively interesting but a bit confusing. My rating is mostly of the writing and how it shows what goes on in Anowa's mind/how she sees the world.

[Maria do Socorro Baptista · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esta é uma peça que eu adoraria ver no palco, muita rica em detalhes, e muito profunda em simbologia e aspectos culturais. Daria uma excelente discussão acerca do processo de colonização, dos papeis culturais e sociais de gênero, da questão da escravização de pessoas, e muito mais. Um texto riquíssimo. Se eu ainda trabalhasse, certamente o usaria em sala de aula.

[Kwabena A · Rating 4 out of 5]

A striking feminist tragedy: bold, unsettling, and beautifully crafted. In Anowa, Aidoo gives us a woman too powerful for the narrow world around her, and the tragedy that unfolds when brilliance meets a society that cannot bear it.

[sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

some good fucking tragic play, it was dramatic n enjoyable

[Emmanuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a woman.

[Asma · Rating 5 out of 5]

🤍

[molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love it

[Lauren the Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

*read for class*

[David Whalen · Rating 3 out of 5]

kinda just trying to fill out my reading challenge... but this was pretty good and shoutout to Mr gufford,,,,,,,,,,, could use some more plot

[chengchieh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Required for English Class. dnf @ 15% lmao.

[mengwe · Rating 5 out of 5]

hey that was EXCELLENT!! i found a reaaallllyyyy good monologue and some dope scenes!!! and i would be able to do it in my home country's dialect, which is excitinggggg!! yay African plays!!

[Janine R. Lutchman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anowa pulled me in from the start. It's an engaging exploration of how cultural expectations can influence, complicate, and even fracture interpersonal relationships.

[Lyra Zhuang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tragedy. Deep sadness on my second read. Good portrayal of societal pressure and gender roles. In Anowa we see the self-will and worth of a headstrong girl slowly reduce to nothing.

[Edidiong Benjamin Umoh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, didactic and tragic

[FathimaHussaini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sem 6 course work

[Boakye Alpha · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, you expect Ama Ata Aidoo to deliver. This was my second reading and yet, I learnt new things from it. This book is deeper than it looks on the surface. Pay attention the details and the mentioned and not-so-mentioned arguments raised in there when reading!

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

''Listen to the advice your parents give,think about what they've saID and if you find that it is sensible(which is the case most at times),follow it.''

Anowa is a girl who listens to her own advice. As a result,she never knew happiness after her marriage to Kofi Ako.Lots of lessons to be learned from this book.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This brings up some really interesting issues with colonialism. I love this play.

[Nayram · Rating 5 out of 5]

hilarious.

[Breanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

Great story. Heavy in themes and deeper meaning.

[Riley Newfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just really really cool. Would love to see a production of it some time.

[Jasleen Kaur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anowa is one book which is feministic and also draws attention to various concepts. It is in the form of a play and for sure is a must read for all age groups, irrespective of their likings and choices.

[Nana Sikapa Mega]

It great.