Ama Ata Aidoo’s collection of short stories in the book, No Sweetness Here (1970), is a vehement outcry against the sheer failure of establishment of good governance in the post-independence Ghana. Every story in the literary work talks of the painful disillusioned existence of the native people of the land. What the people had envisaged did not transform into reality and the stories document this transformation from the high hope to that of pessimism while the commoners’ needs were shunned by the leaders of the liberation movements. Aidoo portrays how post-colonialism was a garb behind which the imperialist forces of the West still continued to exercise its ominous powers on the nation which was formally free now.
Western culture has always aimed to penetrate across other cultures and establish its supremacy and influence. In Ghana too, the West showed its baleful influence with consumerism and cultural imperialism. She questions the reasons behind the deplorable situation of women in the country of Ghana. The minute details and events which get conversed in the short stories testify to the problems of the people and the hapless situation of the society.
The way the author establishes these facts through her literary excellence hits the avid reader and makes him think about these issues of the society and politics. She exposes the evil face of governance and the ill-fate of the common people.
Works Cited
Newson, Adele S. “The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo: Polylectics and Reading against
Neocolonialism by Vincent O. Odamtten” World Literature Today 69.4 (1995): 851. Print.
