“And yet, I have not wronged you, have I? Indeed if there is anyone I may have sinned against, it is me. That desiring you as I do, needing you as I do, I still let you go.”
Sissie is sharing her thoughts in regards to her lover in that her desire for him contradicts with who she is supposed to be. She is unapologetic in her tone, as Sissie sees the breaking off of the relationship is much harder for her despite her being the one making that decision. She wishes to nurture her essence as an African woman who embraces her homeland rather than escape to foreign exile like her peers. Thus, despite harboring deep feelings for her lover, she has to make the tough choice of following who she is.
Oh no. The academic-pseudo-intellectual version is even more dangerous, who in the face of reality that is more tangible than the massive walls of the slave forts standing along our beaches, still talks of universal truth, universal art, universal literature and the Gross National Product.
Aidoo scoffs at those Africans who whitewash history, taking on the view that there is some sort of universality among countries and civilizations and people whereas what there really is is oppressor and oppressed, Black and white, etc. She has no patience for educated Africans who forget where they came from and who is still there; she wants to raise consciousness about the singularity (amid incredible diversity) of Africa and to eschew all notions of Europe's preeminence or of grand, unifying, teleological narratives.
It happens all the time.
At nine a showpiece
At eighteen a darling
What shall you be
At thirty?
A dog among the masters, the
Most masterly of the
Dogs.
In these lines, Aidoo shows how Sissie with her "exotic" Black skin and African heritage has always been a "showpiece," a "darling," a "dog." She is not a real person but is instead an object, a marvel, a specimen, a rarity. And the logical endpoint of that is that she is denied humanity, denied autonomy, denied interiority in service of others' pleasure. These thoughts come to her as she navigates the white world of Germany, standing out in her otherness.
It is
Heresy
In Africa
Europe,
Everywhere.
This is
Not a statement to come from a
Good mother's lips–
Sissie does not think that Africans have the same situation as other oppressed peoples—she sees her own continent's situation as markedly worse than, say, the Irish—but she does see commonalities in the experiences of women regardless of where they live. Here she acknowledges that what Marija has said in terms of needing some space from her child is universally seen as problematic because it suggests that she is not satisfied by being a mother and is, as the patriarchal thinking goes, liable to do something untoward for one of her gender. Similarly, when Marija says she is glad her one child is a boy, Sissie thinks about how women around the world have this same thought because girls are generally undervalued. So though Sissie cannot allow herself to get close to Marija on the basis of sexuality or class or race, she does understand the dynamics of being a woman are nearly the same anywhere.
Ghana?
Just a
Tiny piece of beautiful territory in
Africa — had
Greatness thrust upon her
Once.
But she had eyes that saw not —
That was a long time ago...
Now she picks tiny bits of
Undigested food from the
Offal of the industrial world...
O Ghana.
While Nigeria is big and glorious and messy, Aidoo says Ghana is small and beautiful but has had a troubling history. It was once grand and stable and prosperous, but once the Portuguese began the slave trade along the Gold Coast where Ghana was located (it was renamed to the Gold Coast in the late 19th century, until it took the name of Ghana back with independence in 1956) it became subject to innumerable difficulties both external and internal. Aidoo uses an image of "offal"—meaning the waste from something, usually meat—to suggest Ghana's inferior position as a result of colonial exploitation.
We have heard too,
Have we not? Of countries in
Africa where
Wives of
Presidents hail from
Europe.
Bringing their brothers or...who knows?
To run the
Economy.
In these lines, Aidoo effectively sums up much of the neocolonial experience: Africans marry white European women, ignoring their own, and then allow those women to bring their putatively inexperienced and ignorant brothers and other family members to Africa to run things. Power and influence is in the hands of people who most likely don't care about regular Africans and instead in the hands of those who exploit for their own personal gain.
For a few pennies now and a
Doctoral degree later,
Tell us about
Your people
Your history
Your mind.
One of the most common ways Africans get to travel to Europe is by virtue of attending a university. This may seem ideal, for they get to visit Europe, study, and perhaps make money and gain reputation as a result of their degree. This not, however, innocuous; Aidoo suggests that Europeans are simply exploiting these African students to learn about them and their societies in order to benefit themselves somehow. And sadly, Africans will allow them to do so because they are swayed by the power and allure of Europe and think that studying there will make them better off than at home.
Her half normal self regretted her inability to see Kunle's vision even then.
Sissie is feminist, anti-racist, nationalist, and pan-Africanist—but she is also a real person. She has doubts and fears; she wants to be loved by her boyfriend, she wants to get along with people, she wants to have an easy and fulfilling life. She admits as much in a quote like this, where she realizes that if she could just agree with Kunle she'd be more blithely happy and satisfied. Yet this isn't who she really is at heart; she's an intellectual, a deep thinker, an activist, a rebel, a killjoy. She recognizes these thoughts and acknowledges them and then lets them go.
Said an anxious Afro-American student to a visiting African professor, "Sir, please, tell me: is Egypt in Africa?"
At first read this is a ridiculous question—of course Egypt is in Africa. Everyone knows that, right? However, what Aidoo does with this brief interlude before starting a new section of the novel is indicate the degree of prejudice towards Africa that makes people question whether or not one of the most widely revered and beloved ancient civilizations could possibly be located on the same continent so easily conquered by Europe and so plagued by poverty, disease, ignorance, and backwardness. It is even more tragic that it is a Black person asking this, for clearly they have been molded by the West and Western influence to think that as an African they do not get to claim such an illustrious heritage.
"I know everyone calls you Sissie, but what is your name?"
Sissie's lover asks this question but we never get an answer. She is just Sissie, named because she is a "sister" to many people back home; Mary, a name given by the West to indicate she was Christian; and killjoy, to show that she is disruptive and problematic. What do we make of Aidoo not giving us her name? Perhaps we haven't earned it; perhaps Aidoo's English language-readership does not get access to this private, powerful emblem of individuality until we more directly confront our complicity in colonialism, racism, exploitation, and more. Or perhaps she is saying that for this particular character, a name doesn't matter. A name is a marker of individuality and for Sissie, such individuality is wrapped up with pride and self-regard and a shutting out of others; thus, no name means being part of everyone in Ghana, everyone in Africa.
