A Survey of African Poetry in the London Times, Sunday Times, Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement 1865-1985

The first mention of Ghanaian writer, poet, and playwright Ama Ata Aidoo in The Times is in the PHS Diary column on October 1967, two years after her play The Dilemma of a Ghost was published. If a good title ought to capture the main idea of a text and even spark the interest of readers, then “A Ghanaian Playwright” certainly does not offer much in that regard. The news article introduces Aidoo as a Ghanaian playwright to ‘the world.’ Born in 1945 in Abeadzi Kyia in the central region of Ghana, Aidoo attended the University of Ghana in Legon from 1961-1964. Following active participation in drama and writing workshops, she produced her first two plays and a collection of short stories. She would go on to explore Ghana’s colonial history and its implications in her work as well as the cultural dynamics of neocolonialism. With her significant role in the Ghanaian literary scene and her mark as the first published African woman dramatist, it is crucial to observe how Aidoo was represented and her work recognized in the Western print media between 1967 and 1997, a time when ten of her books had been published, some to much acclaim.

The PHS Diary column begins thus: “So far the only West African playwright we know much about is the Nigerian Wole Soyinka.” The statement draws attention to the West’s abysmal level of engagement with African theatre and recognizes Aidoo as one of the first female Ghanaian playwrights to be known beyond the continent, on the heels of Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka. By1967, Soyinka had produced over ten plays, often with a satirical influence, and was well known for being one of the foremost playwrights to put African theatre on a global stage.

Aidoo, however, is described as “27, a short, good-natured Ghanaian writer.” It is a description that highlights her demeanor and physical appearance in lieu of her talent and skill as a playwright, the occasion for which she’s being featured in the newspaper. It is easy to wonder what other qualities of this new playwright should have been brought into focus and how a historicized and contextualized engagement with Aidoo’s work could have altered readers’ perception of the playwright. The PHS Diary Column features a headshot of Aidoo, putting a face to the name, and shares some direct quotes from the interview, among which is one where Aidoo expresses the complexities of writing in English: “It’s not accessible to the greater part of my people, but it also gives me the chance to reach a wider African and world audience. You feel like a fake–you suck your people dry for your materials and then dish it up for others.” 

While it is a candid and perhaps difficult statement to make, one wonders how differently these words would be interpreted once some context is provided. Since Ghana’s independence in 1957, there’s been no legislation to make Twi the official language of Ghana. Although presently Twi dominates Ghanaian arts and culture, English has been preserved for official business and as the language of instruction in schools, which is reflected in the attitudes toward the use of vernacular language: when one speaks English, they are regarded in higher esteem than one who speaks any of the fifty Indigenous languages. These linguistic complexities can be traced to the impact of colonialism.

Chinua Achebe aptly captures this condition in his 1965 essay, English and the African Writer:

There are not many countries in Africa today where you could abolish the language of the erstwhile colonial powers and still retain the facility for mutual communication. Those African writers who have chosen to write in English or French are not unpatriotic smart alecs, with an eye on the main chance outside their countries. They are by-products of the same processes that made the new nation-states of Africa.

If readers had been provided with this historical framework, they could have engaged with the news article from a place of inquiry that acknowledges why Aidoo writes in English instead of a Ghanaian language and reflects on the cultural implications of her choice.

Considerable attention was given to Kathleen Wheeler’s Guide to Twentieth-Century Women Novelists (Guide) in The Times Literary Supplement in 1997. Reviewing this reference book, critic Katy Emck describes Ama Ata Aidoo and South African writer Bessie Head as “important Third World authors.” It is worth pointing out how other women novelists in the Guide such as Elizabeth Hardwick, Dorothy Parker, and Susan Sontag are listed under “[w]riters famous for their analytical and essayist work” and how Edith Wharton and Virginia Woolf are upheld as “canonical giants.” The latter description emphasizes the writers’ prominence and reflects the notion that, unlike the African writer, American and European writers have worked their way up to earn high regard and should be represented as such. American and European authors are not identified by geographical markers nor by their country’s economic and political status, but rather by the skills that distinguish their work as well as the recognition they and their accomplishments have enjoyed. The difference in categorizing writers is clear and it reveals the subtle ways in which racial arrogance and prejudice play a crucial part in the reception of African writers. 

In her review of the Guide, Emck observes that the 135 entries on English-language authors showcase an “uneven” representation of the five continents by Wheeler. In the same vein, then, one may point out the unevenness in Wheeler’s handling of the material, especially the African writers included in the Guide. Instead of clamoring for mere numerical balance, there is greater need to acknowledge and pay attention to the work of African writers—work that, over the years, has been significant in its depiction of cultural values and profound in its intellectual engagement with the conditions and traditions of the African continent. By the time of the Guide’s publication in 1997, Aidoo had published most of her notable works including her first novel Our Sister Killjoy (1966), short story collection No Sweetness Here (1970), and novel Changes, which won the 1992 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book (Africa). Considering her engagement with Akan oral tradition and her critical work on feminist issues, colonialism, and postcolonialism, an introduction of this kind is woefully inadequate, and fails in illuminating both the writer and the quality of her work. 

The theme of Pan Africanism is one Aidoo addresses in her work through her treatment of Black diasporic encounters as well as her examination of the political and cultural underpinnings of a traditional African society. In a 1968 The Times PHS Diary column, a small section is dedicated to the story “Speak up about Soyinka.” A year after the Nobel Laureate was placed in solitary confinement in August 1967 by the Gowon regime, Aidoo wrote to the Nigerian General “asking him to break the silence” on Soyinka’s imprisonment. The news article carries a black and white photo of a young Wole Soyinka at a desk. Only three years after she received recognition for her play, The Dilemma of a Ghost, known for its significance in reflecting the Ghanaian culture and history, Aidoo is merely referred to as “a Ghanaian playwright.” She is quoted saying: “I felt it should be written. People should not be allowed to forget Wole Soyinka’s disappearance.” There is very little context offered on Aidoo’s relationship with Soyinka and on how a gesture of this kind reiterates her committed advocacy for political union and solidarity among African countries.  

James Moxon writes an article entitled “Folklore Modern Style” for The Times in 1969, in which he identifies Aidoo as one of several distinguished writers engaging Ghanaian oral tradition and folklore, key aspects of the country’s cultural history and storytelling. In the article, Aidoo is recognized for combining music with folktale material successfully: in drawing on and inventing with elements of folk tradition, Aidoo nourishes her creations and demonstrates the sophisticated layers of African communication systems. Other African writers mentioned in the article are Efua Sutherland and Ayikwei Amrah. Moxon pays a great deal of attention to Sutherland’s plays and collection of folktales due to the global attention her work has garnered. He notes how her dramatic plays have helped “start a real revival in indigenous theater in Ghana.” Moxon wraps up his argument with a note on the evolving nature of African oral history, including a brief mention of other authors whose works carry the structural and thematic relevance of such traditions. 

The Times articles on Ama Ata Aidoo from 1967 to 1997 mainly acknowledge her as a playwright and briefly examine her contributions as a contemporary African writer. Her poetry collections, including Someone Talking to Sometime (1986) and An Angry Letter in January (1992), received no coverage. Aidoo’s novels and her writing in anthologies, however, were reviewed, receiving editorial credit, praise, and critique.    

Bio: Tryphena Yeboah is a writer from Ghana and a doctoral student in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Chapman University.

Work Cited

Behrent, Megan. “Ama Ata Aidoo: Anowa.” African Post Colonial Literature in English, 1997, http://www.postcolonialweb.org/africa/ghana/aidoo/anowa1.html. Accessed 2 Jul. 2022. 

Emck, Katy. "Guide to Twentieth-Century Women Novelists, A." The Times Literary Supplement, no. 4917, 27 June 1997, p. 25. The Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive, link-gale-com.libproxy.unl.edu/apps/doc/EX1200487328/GDCS?u=linc74325&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=35426373. Accessed 3 Aug. 2022.

Franks, Jill. “(Christina) Ama Ata Aidoo Biography.” JRank Articles, https://biography.jrank.org/pages/4089/Aidoo-Christina-Ama-Ata.html. Accessed 3 Aug. 2022.

Moxon, James. "Folklore Modern Style." Times, 22 Oct. 1969, p. VIII. The Times Digital Archive, link-gale-com.libproxy.unl.edu/apps/doc/CS638153046/GDCS?u=linc74325&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=a25a9578. Accessed 3 Aug. 2022.

Needham, Anuradha Dingwaney, and Ama Ata Aidoo. “An Interview with Ama Ata Aidoo.” The Massachusetts Review, vol. 36, no. 1, 1995, pp. 123–33. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25090585. Accessed 2 Jul. 2022. 

PHS. "The Times Diary." Times, 4 Oct. 1967, p. 10. The Times Digital Archive, link-gale-com.libproxy.unl.edu/apps/doc/CS168389956/GDCS?u=linc74325&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=3c3f5e96. Accessed 3 Aug. 2022.