Our Sister Killjoy

by Ama Ata Aidoo

Join a young Ghanaian woman on her journey into Europe's heart of whiteness to meet the natives in this iconoclastic modern classic.


'A wondrous discovery.' Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

'A one of the works that inspired my own literary journey.' Tsitsi Dangarembga

'Aidoo has reaffirmed my faith in the power of the written word.' Alice Walker

'Modest, lyrical, reflective and intelligent .. Deserves as wide an audience as it can get.' Angela Carter


Fish and chips.
They lied.
They lied.
They lied.


Sissie is leaving Africa for the first time, arriving in Europe on a scholarship to experience the glories of a Western education.

In Germany, as guest of honour over embassy cocktails, she cringes at her countrymen.

In a Bavarian castle, she is seduced by a lonely local mother to Little Adolf.

In freezing London, she witnesses 'been-tos' sharing myths of an overseas idyll.

In between continents, she writes a letter on the plane to her exiled former lover.

But it is not sent. She will tell these tales back at home.


Ama Ata Aidoo's landmark debut Our Sister Killjoy exploded into the world in 1977. With its blistering feminist satire of the African diaspora, colonial legacies and toxic racism, expressed in a radical literary form - prose poetry, letter, manifesto - its provocative impact remains unmatched.

Genres: Fiction, Poetry, Africa, Ghana, African Literature, Feminism, Literary Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

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

[Darkowaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I’ve read this year. ‘Our Sister Killjoy’ has managed to fill the void I’ve been battling/constantly grappling with, wrt my conflicting feelings on ‘Afropolitanism’, 1st gen Americans, living abroad, assimilation, ‘the real African’, moving back to the continent & the ‘savior’ mentality the ‘been-tos’ bring, feminism, loneliness.
A LOT is explored in this short book and its fucking golden. I wish I read this earlier in my life.
I don’t know if I can even write a full review on this book, but once I let it marinate in my mind and heart, I surely will.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ama Ata Aidoo is of my parents’ generation so I tried, while reading, to imagine back to 1977 when Our Sister Killjoy was first published to consider how black women across the diaspora were writing about their experience. Reading this book 40 years after its original publication I find it eerie that dominant Eurocentric attitudes, systems, and languages continue to complicate black identities in the multi-voiced ever-interrogating dialogue that Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghanaian) employed in this work. Before reading this I had just read Imbole Mbue’s (Cameroonian) Behold the Dreamers, and some of that was still on my mind. Books written by writers from different African countries 40 -60 years apart (think of Nigerian writer China Achebe’s Things Fall Apart) continue to illustrate that black African encounters with western imperial powers - whether British or American -continue to be layered and fragmenting, if not rich and psyche-boggling.

I'm bound to read Our Sister Killjoy again. It's a "little" book - only 134 pages - but it packs a punch. For me, it could have been even smaller and tighter with a little of the disorienting stream-of-consciousness-fat trimmed off.

[Raquel Casas · Rating 4 out of 5]

«Cuando un crítico se niega a hablar de tu obra, es un acto de violencia. Te está deseando la muerte en tanto persona creativa».
🥀
Sissie es escogida para un programa de becas en Europa y siente como si fuese «una especie de ensayo para un viaje al paraíso». Todo el mundo a su alrededor le recuerda que es una privilegiada, que viajar es una oportunidad única «para mejorar», que Europa es un mundo fantástico al que África debe mirar como referente.
🥀
Sin embargo, durante su estancia en Europa descubrirá a través de Marija que los contrastes culturales son a menudo desconcertantes. Se reafirmará así en su identidad y en su convicción de que aunque la llamen aguafiestas hay que bajar de la nube irreal de optimismo y empezar a cavar la tierra.
🥀
El libro acaba con una carta de amor que escribe Sissie de regreso a Ghana. Su amado ha quedado lejos, en Occidente, y se niega a regresar. Ella entonces analiza por qué sus compatriotas se niegan a volver para hacer algo por su país. Por qué se occidentalizan y olvidan sus raíces. Por qué si regresan lo hacen para criticar y no para ayudar.
🥀
El epílogo final es magnífico pues en él ya vemos a Ama Ata reflexionando sobre el papel de la mujer en la sociedad africana y cómo, si además es escritora, sufre una doble exclusión. Ignorada en su país por sus colegas. Ignorada fuera de él por extranjera. Ama muestra una lucidez combativa que nos obliga a hacer una reflexión al mismo tiempo que disfrutamos de su estilo tan directo e inconfundible.
🥀
Magnifica Ama Ata. Imprescindible Ama Ata.
#AmaAtaAidoo #nuestrahermanaaguafiestas #leoautorastodoelaño #afrofeminismo #librosimprescindibles

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always loved the word 'killjoy', and I wanted to read this book on that basis alone.
It turns out this book found me, as the best books always do. As a Kenyan riding out her second Scandinavian winter in the pursuit of papers, the questions in this book both comforted me and convicted me.
I couldn't believe it was published in 1977. Two generations of my family have since made the pilgrimage (Global) North and the story is the same. The vivid, bemused descriptions of interacting with the natives, the poor fit of winter clothes, the (not)food, the great expectations of experiences and change and success and payback, could have been ripped out of my journal yesterday.
Particularly evocative is the chapter, the letter, that describes the clash of politics and love, which I think every young person with opinions ought to read.
But then, I think that of this entire book. Read it. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell every Been-to you know. This book has our collective number guys.

I loved it and I felt loved by it. Sissie, I too have a black-eyed squint.

[Mar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiene muchos y muy buenos pensamientos e ideas.
Me ha gustado mucho
Creo que merece una relectura para captar todos sus matices ya que tengo la sensación de haberme perdido en muchas de las anécdotas

[Booksandbe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuando un libro viene avalado por @raquel_casas_p y las libreras de @lib_mujeres , sabes que es un acierto seguro, pero en este caso, además de eso, es un jodida declaración de intenciones, una “mezcla” maravillosa de generos, un puñetazo en la mesa dispuesto a remover conciencias.
No apto para todos los públicos, es un texto que bien merece lápiz en mano y varias relecturas.
Un libro que deberíamos expandir y regalar a tod@s nuestr@s allegados. Publicado por primera vez en 1970, es increíble darse cuenta de que casi 50 años después, los temas principales de los que trata aún sean relevantes.

No puedo añadir mas que esto : LEEDLO,POR FAVOR!!!!..
( La novela, como todos los libros de Editorial Cambalache, está disponible para libre descarga en su web.)

Parte del prologo de Marta Sofía López (y traductora de la novela): “El feminismo de Aidoo no es deudor de Mary Wolstonecraft, de Betty Frieddan o de Hélène Cixous. No arraiga en la Revolución Francesa, ni en el movimiento sufragista, ni en la «segunda ola». Es un feminismo afrocéntrico e innegociable.”

[Barbara McEwen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty pleased with this library find. It took me a little while to get into because it is novel, poetry, and essay really combined into one, but once my brain adjusted I found myself needing to hear what Sissie had to say. Sissie travels around Europe, however her heart is in Africa. The criticisms of Western society and of our obliviousness to the continued impacts of colonialism hurt because they ring true. Definitely still an apt novel for today.

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ama Ata Aidoo is a new name for me and I did struggle a little, at times, with the style of the book which feels part memoir, part novel and part poetry.

It tells the story of Sissie but also of many others who came from the colonies to make their mark (or their lives) in Europe.

The first part deals with Sissie in Germany where she is befriended by a woman who becomes almost besotted with Sissie. The next part is about Sissie's time in London where she sees what living in England has done to her compatriots. The final part is a letter about and to those who have left and returned home.

It's an interesting look at emigrants and the language is, at times, very beautiful but it also doesn't let you rest on your laurels and think that life is easy for those who choose to leave their home for a better life, those who return or those who stay away.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Faber & Faber for the advance review copy.

[Mathieu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straf boek.

In maart gelezen tijdens griep, zeer weinig blijven hangen door de koorts denk ik.
Nu dus herlezen, de mening blijft hetzelfde: straf boek.
Sterk geschreven, vlijmscherpe kritiek en een verrassend grote diversiteit aan thematiek.
Het leest als een 20e-eeuws antwoord op Conrads Heart of Darkness.

"How did you discribe it? 'Anti-western neurosis?'. Maybe." - En volledig terecht.

[Maythee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This creative work, which mixes poetry and prose, speaks to the political and personal violence of European colonialism in Africa. I like how it presents Sissie's journey of defining herself as an educated woman of color within a society that has supposedly "moved beyond" this experience.

[D · Rating 2 out of 5]

While attempting to add a new dimension to the many-sided story of colonialism, Aidoo seems to accidentally present us with a flat one dimensional girl. She gives us Sissie, who is first presented to us as pure, sweet, and naive, but by the end of the work she becomes an angered, exhausted, and jaded woman. In writing the previous sentence, I was almost tempted to say that she "evolved" into a bitter woman, but the truth is, Aidoo does not give us growth or evolution. She doesn't present us with transformation, she provides us with one and then the other, never giving us a sense of in-between or a process of development. She gives us extreme polarities rather than a spectrum of truth, and because of this the reader wonders what really made Sissie snap. We know that Sissie's relationship with Marija is surfacey and slightly odd, but when Sissie cruelly dismisses Marija, it doesn't entirely make sense. Where did this detached form of disgust begin?

It seems as though Aidoo is trying to tug at our consciences and have us feel sadness when we experience Sissie's new disposition, trying to alert our awareness to a guilt we should be experiencing because of our privilege, but in truth, I felt more sad at Sissie's simplistic and judgemental attitudes. All whites are foul and cruel creatures? All Africans that pursue lives in Europe and the United States are selfish traitors? How is this possible? And how does this attitude give Sissie any kind of sense of enlightenment, and even more poignantly, how does this help her live a meaningful, self-fulfilling life?

[leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

i had never read a book before in which poetry and prose were mixed to such an extent but i ended up really enjoying it. i read through this story pretty quickly because i have to read this for a class on friday, but i wish i had had more time to actually let this simmer, read up on some of the african terminology used in the book that i was not yet familiar with, etc. sure, it's a short book, but there really is just so much in it that it honestly must take years to uncover it all and i fear that with my reading i have only scratched the surface.

[Mbali (flowahh_) · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like a 4.5, but review coming soon (hopefully 💀)

[Nailya · Rating 4 out of 5]

The publication of Our Sister Killjoy by Faber&Faber is a part of their wider series of brining the classics of Black and African literature to modern British audiences. In this case, Ama Ata Aidoo's novel was first published in 1977 but has been difficult to access in the UK in the years since. The first thing that stood out to me was just how modern it feels; if it had been written by a diaspora writer today, it would have been hailed as ground-breaking, innovative and fresh in terms of both form and content (especially compared to the more commercial family saga types discussing similar issues that often get published). The book is a blend of prose narration of the story of Sissie, the eponymous 'Our Sister', a Ghanaian young woman who goes abroad on a government scholarship, poetry, and polemical dialogues.

The book is divided into three neat parts. In the first one, Sissie, now in Germany, strikes a friendship (and maybe something more) with a local white housewife. In the second one, Sissie observes the lives of Black migrants in London, and in the third one, she has a heated debate with a plethora of (male) African migrants living abroad, trying to persuade them that their place is at home, not in immigration. The style, uniquely its own, has some echoes of the works of Jamaica Kincaid, which were to come later.

Ama Ata Aidoo is uncompromising. She presents a singular vision of her, and Africa's relationship with the West, highly critical of colonialism and immigration to the West. You can agree or disagree with the specifics of her arguments, but the sheer clarity of her vision and her cutting and precise prose are undeniable. I really enjoyed the first part because structurally, it is the closest to more traditional fiction, with scenes, dialogues, and characters. Sissie's relationship with Marija, the German housewife, is laid bare but is also full of nuance. Sissie's questioning of her own sexuality and the question of what exactly does this African woman symbolises for Marija was particularly interesting to me.

Given that Ama Ata Aidoo made space for queerness in her book, it was a bit disappointing to see that she did not take it into account when discussing the ethics of immigration in Part III. I was reading this alongside A Different Hurricane by H. Nigel Thomas, a story of two gay men from St Vincent who end up back in their very homophobic motherland after living abroad, and it really made me think that such a scenario seems not to have occurred to Ama Ata Aidoo. Ultimately, her argument against immigration is based on the triumph of the collective over the individual. As someone who grappled with similar issues regarding immigration, albeit in a very different context (I was born during the most populous brain drain of my country of birth, and eventually choose to leave quite early on in life, too), I found myself siding with Sissie's opponents, as I could not see her make any space for individual agency, happiness and freedom in her arguments. At some point Sissie herself could not come up with an answer to a top rated medical scientist, who complained that his country of birth does not have the equipment for him to do his research, and that his work would be wasted if he were to be a village doctor instead of a leading researcher. I do respect Sissie's (and the author's) position, I just do not accept it for myself, and I would never try to impose it on others.

It was also interesting to see that Sissie created an opposition of migration and homecoming based on development, as that idea is completely absent in the discussions of ethics of migration from my country of birth, where all the conversations are focused on staying to resist the oppressive government, or leaving to pursue your own safety and happiness, rather than staying to assist with the development of the country. Although Sissie mentions civilian and military dictatorships as a factor in migration, they seem to be accepted in passing, akin to a natural disaster one cannot prevent, rather than a political regime one has a moral duty to resist.

It was interesting to see that Sissie, who mentioned 'Russia' and China a couple of times, still sees the world primarily as consisting of 'Africa' and 'the West'. The 1970s were a key point for the development of Communist regimes 'soft power', especially in cases of developing and non-aligned countries. There was (and still is) a dedicated university in Moscow, named after Patrice Lumumba, specifically designed to educate international students from Global Majority countries. The international student communities of the 1960s and 70s introduced thousands of Africans to the Soviet Union, and facilitated the creation of a Black community, primarily consisting of mixed race descendants of these students, in the country, then and today. Our Sister Killjoy is placed, both narratively and conceptually, firmly on one side of the Iron Curtain. It was curious to read Our Sister Killjoy in tandem with Thuan's Chinatown, a book that places its heroine in a much broader and multi-faceted world. The world of Our Sister Killjoy feels, by contrast, rather insular. I would have been interested to see what Ama Ata Aidoo would have had to say about a broader world.

[Charles Edwards-Freshwater · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this! A wet, often quite humorous look at an African girl travelling Europe. I especially liked the part set in Germany. I also really enjoyed the blend of poetry and prose - a beautifully written and memorable book.

[Kaat Verleye · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an unexpected ride. The book dives into themes of racism, identity and colonialism and this made me learn a lot. It made me interested in these themes and made me want to learn more about it. The writing style was a bit too difficult for me - lot of prose and poetry - but it felt really cool to read. I think I got the main message and am definetly intrigued by the book.

[F · Rating 4 out of 5]

almost poetry, almost manifesto, almost a subconscious musing. almost a novel.

it took me a long time to finish this book, mostly because I inhaled it at first as part of my presentation. and then, when I could read it at my own pace.... I did just that.

ama ata aidoo brings up question in Our Sister Killjoy that chimamanda ngozi adichie also wants to ask in Americanah: why aren't you coming back? what's making you stay? if I had read it earlier, I might have included it as part of my undergrad thesis: it talks about what I also wanted to bring up then, that novels, appeals to the soul an the heart of a reader, based on the author's own experiences are more effective than a scolding by a passerby. although aidoo is a lot more on the nose than adichie, I still enjoyed the book.

it's funny, and it's got a lot of great lines, and if you're interested in African fiction, or in fiction that deals with double identity (which apparently I'm reading a lot of recently), or especially novels written by African women, this is definitely the book for you.

recommended.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I suppose this could be described as a novel-in-stories and partly in verse. It's a beautifully written story about black bodies in foreign (read: cold, white) spaces. I was particularly excited to read this because the narrative follows a Ghanaian woman who travels internationally on her own. I think the more popular African "been-to" narratives (and I do think this fits in with them) have male protagonists. You would think that no African women travelled alone (for education and more) in the 60s and 70s but they did! (My mother included). It's nice to see a reflection of them on the page.

[Shafiqah Berry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read! A wonderful perspective on feminism, Imperialism, the perils of immigration from an African Woman's perspective. It amazes me of the timeliness of a piece written in the 1970s. It is a powerful meditation on the problems of Africa and the world that allows it to be so.

[Hannah Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

"My dear brother,
I have been to a cold strange land where dogs and cats eat better than many many children;
Where men sit at table and eat with animals and yet would rather die than shake the hands of other men."

I LOVED this. A woman from Ghana travels to Germany and further out in Europe from there, finding normalcy and absurdity everywhere she goes. I loved her voice and her insight.
I do find it very hard to read prose poetry and that was a challenge, hence why I have given this 4 rather than 5 stars, but don't let that put you off! It's absolutely worth it.

"And now where was she? How did she get there? What strings, pulled by whom, drew her into those pinelands where not so long ago human beings stoked their own funeral pyres with other human beings, where now a young Aryan housewife kisses a young black woman?"

[aly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was close to tears... Just then you came. Walked straight to me and took my hands. Oh My Dear, My Precious, My Own Something, how shall I ever thank you for that moment? We couldn't have done better if we had timed it. You remember leading me out of the hall with the voices close behind us, then a broad murmur and finally fading away, while outside in the cold night, the shining snow looked so hard I thought it was always there, then you driving and driving and driving, then out of the car, and you pulling my coat closer around me and saying you didn't think it was heavy enough, then up some elevator, you opening a door, taking my coat, sitting me down in a chair, pouring me some liquor, you didn't even ask me whether I drank or not and what, and I was grateful, and you pouring yourself a drink too, and sitting yourself down in a chair, right opposite me and with the smile around your eyes, you saying, 'I know everyone calls you Sissie, but what is your name?'

WHAT. IS. YOUR. NAME. brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant brilliant

[Gorrit-Cor Lootsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our Sister Killjoy is filled with righteous anger. Anger towards those who colonized Ghana, the ones that have instilled the beliefs that the only real opportunities for Ghanaians are in Europe or America. Her country provides resources for some of its citizens to be educated abroad, only for them to stay away in that foreign place. This is met with understanding by most, after all why wouldn't you stay in mythological Europe when most would give anything to go there? Aidoo argues that this isn't enough, people should go back and bring their sought after knowledge to Ghana. 

At times, this reads more like an essay. Many of her conclusions are still relevant today. Part poetry, part epistolary, and part narrative; I don't think it always succeeds at just being a novel. It has something important to say but sacrifices plot and character for it. So, an important and enlightening read if not a classic poece of literature.

3.5/5 stars

[alice carrick-smith]

the last section of this (a 30 page love letter) is one of the most beautiful things i've ever read about loving and being loved

[emil · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for uni

[Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot believe I did not review this book back when I first read it in 2015 and had to return to do so in 2017. The first time I read it, it was the day before my birthday. I can only imagine thinking that reading this text was a wonderful birthday gift. Our Sister Killjoy is a text worth more than I can ever express in words. It is one of the best books ever written.

Split into four sections, the novel (or prose poem, or series of interconnected short stories) chronicles Sissie's journey from Ghana to Europe to study, with episodes taking place in Germany and England bookended by her travels.

"Into a Bad Dream" is brief, showing her first experience with an oppressive homogenizing gaze at dinner parties and finally on a plane to Europe.

"The Plums" is an entirely different and utterly fascinating affair, exploring an unrealized queer sexual encounter between Sissie and a German woman named Mary. They find themselves oddly akin to each other in that Sissie was also called Mary as a child. Sissie's constant refrain, "from knowledge gained since," marks the "poetic" sections (as opposed to the more familiar prose-like sections) as containing retrospective insights, whereas the "prose" sections are Sissie's experiences in the moment. The language here is as lush and ripe as the titular plums, which take on both the sexual symbolism of a peach and also signify as Adam and Eve's fruit of knowledge, more often represented as an apple. Sissie and Mary's affair is as beautiful and as tragic as any. Aidoo writes, "Love is always better when / Doomed" (41). This doomed love is made impossible in part by Mary's marriage and Sissie's foreclosure of the possibility of a queer encounter.

In "From Our Sister Killjoy," we have another love story between Sissie and the enlightened Kunle. Their love, however, is doomed by a different political ideology. Sissie refuses to stay in Europe and is dedicated to bring her education back to Ghana.

"A Love Letter" is a beautiful section, with a robust vision of an overwhelming love for individuals, groups, countries, and continents. The first page of the chapter depicts a young African-American (as termed in the text) student asking a visiting African professor about the relationship between himself and Egypt. What he is really asking for is a love letter from this African professor, and a map of self-love, to be able to locate himself in a cultural tradition that is valued even by violent and hegemonic forces.

The section goes on to a literal letter penned from Sissie to Kunle. This letter comes to the reader as a revelation, filled with wonderful insights and a powerful political praxis from Sissie.

The nature of this text in terms of form is so fascinating. The "prose" and "poetry" sections bleed into one another. The characters are refined yet indistinct, with Sissie being anonymized in a way that gives her a choral nature. Indeed, this novel seems clearly aware of its function as an example of Brechtian epic theater. But Aidoo is better than just following in Brecht's footsteps. Our Sister Killjoy is a phenominal achievement.

[K AKUA GRAY · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess I am just drawn to classic African Diaspora literature. No, actually I have so many books in my library that I haven't read that are just as old as I am!

Our Sister Killjoy by Ama Ata Aidoo is one of those books in my most recent reading rituals that provoked a lot of thoughts around the subject of the never ending topic of the African Brain Drain. First published in 1970, it is interesting that forty-four years later the main topics of cultural denial, everything white is right and the illusion of happiness in material gain are still relevant in 2014.

If you are a Native African living abroad, this book is a must read. It contains all the familiarity of the world you left behind and it gets you thinking about the world you live in as a foreigner in another man's land... Read more http://drakuabookreviews.blogspot.com...

[Anetq · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sister Killjoy is travelling and observing the strange customs of the people (like eating cold food in Germany, the loneliness of the people and the shadows of the nazi regime) - but she is also pointing out the racism, sexism, thinly veiled slavery she meets along her way - and the strange (and mostly poor) lives of the brightest of Africans studying in London - and pointing out how they lie about the conditions to those at home, and refusing togo home. But she does this while telling stories of love and life, and not in a preaching or overly analytical way (this is not Memmi). Which make this powerful writing, from a lady who doesn’t believe she should shut up, even if she is a woman.

And if you are not reading it for the story and opinions, read it for it’s interesting modernist style - with prose poem intermissions between the trains of thought and more classic parts.

[Tania]

I had not heard of Ana Ata Aidoo until this book came up on Netgalley, a new novel in the Faber Editions collection. I think this series is always interesting, and worth a look, so I requested it.

Initially it was hard to get into; it's part novel, part prose poetry, and part letter. Sissi is part of a program that takes her from Ghana to Germany, then England and then back to Africa. She managed to fit a lot into a short book. I feel like I need to read it again to fully appreciate it, but I'm glad I have had the chance to do so, and pleased it will find a new audience as a part of the Faber Editions series. I will have to look out for more of her work.

*Many thanks to Netgally and the publishers for a copy in exchange for an honest opinion.*

[Brenda Kodawa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in the 70s and will forever be relevant, especially to African immigrants.

Aidoo explores what it means to be a daughter of Africa, so in love with the continent with all its and glory. She juxtaposes it with the protagonist's experience of the western world and how Africa and its people are seen from the Western front.

Aidoo's narration is witty, sarcastic and she will make you laugh out loud in mockery. She also quite often breaks form prose to poetry always highlighting her sarcasm here bringing a certain fluidity to the narration that is quite artistic and enjoyable.

I am a sucker for humor. She made me laugh and maybe she will do the same to you.

[Pharez]

Ama Ata Aidoo, has done it again, she touches on various issues through the lens of her main character, our sister Sissie. She presents the world through Sissie's squint. I enjoyed reading the book.
It's interspersed with verse, and short poems that are succinct and adds a different flavor to the plot. The Ghanaian immigrant's struggle, family relations, and oppression are all dealt with here, sometimes very subtly. Sissie's world view is relevant in contemporary times as they were then when Ama Ata Aiddo. A great read.