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the complete review - drama

Anowa

by
Ama Ata Aidoo

general information | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B : decent drama, though odd story

See our review for fuller assessment.

The complete review's Review:

       The strong, wilful title character of Anowa causes her family concern because she is not yet married as the play begins, "six years after her puberty". An independent spirit, Anowa has her own ideas. She does find a man to marry -- Kofi Ako -- but her parents (and especially her mother) are disappointed by her choice.
       Anowa is disappointed by her parents' reaction and leaves the family, setting off with Kofi Ako. She loves him, but he isn't quite her match. After initial hardships they fare quite well. They become successful -- rich, even. They have slaves to do their work and can indulge in indolence -- or at least Kofi Ako can.
       But they don't have any children.
       Not having children is, of course, a big lacuna. A crushing, gaping void, apparently. Anowa even wants Kofi Ako to take a second wife if that might allow him to sire some offspring. But the root of the problem lies deeper, as it turns out that Kofi Ako is less of a man than one might wish .....
       The play ends in tragedy, which should teach those young lasses a lesson about marrying against their parents' wishes ..... Or not.
       Fairly well written, neatly presented and with some interesting characters in Anowa and Kofi Ako, Anowa is a fairly powerful piece of theatre. The strange fates of the couple, and the odd way of getting to this moral are a bit peculiar, but there is decent drama to it. Entertaining.

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Links:

• Megan Behrent on Anowa:
  • Introduction
  • Aidoo's Anowa: Dramatizing Socio-historical Allegory
  • Aidoo's Anowa: Gender Dynamics
  • Aidoo's Anowa: Oral Narratives
  • Matrilineality and Slavery in Aidoo's Anowa
  • Aidoo's Anowa: Class Allegory

• Books Past
• Geosi Reads
• Guyana Chronicle

• Ama Ata Aidoo site
• Ama Ata Aidoo at books and writers
• Profile at BBC

• The Dilemma of a Ghost
• Our Sister Killjoy

• See Index of books relating to Africa
• See Index of Drama books

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About the Author:

       Ghanaian author Ama Ata Aidoo lived 1942 to 2023.

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