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Sama El Feky-
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Professor Mounira Soliman
African Literature Essay 3
The Dilemma of a Ghost: Ato and Eulalie Are One & The same
Of all African plays, Ama Ato Aidoo’s Dilemma of A Ghost leaves the most lasting
impression. The play centres around a Ghanaian who recently married an African-American
woman in the United States, surprising his family in Africa. Considering the distinctive cultural
backgrounds of the couple, Ato and Eulalie, the play captures major issues in postcolonial Africa
such as culture clash, identity, slavery, marriage, childbearing and ignorance. In Act One, readers
get the sense that the couple believes love can conquer all their concerns and differences. In Act
Five, however, they finally lash at each other, proving that even marriage can not win over
culture. The couple should have perhaps focused on their similarities, rather than grudgingly
stressing over their differences. Playing on the fact that Ato and Eulalie might not be from
different worlds after all, my male partner and I will literally switch gender roles. He will be
Eulalie and I will be Ato, just to show the audience how similar the two characters might just be.
Right from the very beginning, Act One, It is evidently obvious that there is a ticking
bomb that is just waiting to destroy the new romance between Ato and and Eulalie. The couple
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argues both seriously and playfully over not only Eulalie’s fear of rejection from Ato’s family
but also how African woman are vocally oppressed, as they are not allowed to speak their minds.
Even though she is African, Eulalie is no where near similar to the girls back home. She has no
problem voicing her thoughts, especially her wish to postpone childbearing. Ato initially
supports that decision, despite his family’s traditional expectations. In this scene, readers feel
that Ato and Eulalie are trying to convince themselves that they can go through anything as long
as they are together. The truth is, however, that as soon as the couple arrives in Africa, Ato
becomes a silent accomplice and completely turns his back on his new wife. He seems to be
having his own identity crisis, as he feels a disconnection from his family and culture.
As Eulalie struggles to fit into the African lifestyle, readers start to get the idea that the
African-American woman is gradually losing pieces of herself in the process, especially that
Ato’s family thinks of her as a slave who is not worthy of their son. She irrationally acts on her
habits, desires and needs, including excessively drinking alcohol, regardless of everyone’s
disapproval. Her attempt to understand such an incredibly different culture seems to regulate her
own. Throughout the play, Eulalie controls her husband and confidently speaks her opinions,
while Ato only follows other’s wishes and ignores obvious issues. By Act Five though, Ato has
enough of Eulalie’s behaviour and slaps her so this scene is in a way the turning point of the
play. While hitting his wife is not a very appropriate decision, Ato has at least finally acted on
his own without waiting for anyone’s approval. His lack of actions and speech did of course
contribute in damaging the relationship between his family and wife, as he is the only person that
could have very well linked both sides together. Maybe marriage can’t ultimately win over clash
of culture, especially that the newly couple seem to fail repeatedly to support each other.
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Ato and Eulalie choose to avoid talking about certain topics and that greatly weakens
them as a couple. The concept of slavery, for instance, is always there just begging to be noticed.
Axiotou in “Theatre of Impossible Forgiveness: Ama Ata Aidoo and the Dilemma of Slavery”
stresses that Eulalie is the reminder the Ghanaian family truly does not need. Her existence
among them highlights the sensitive word “Slave” and so that also brings to the surface a part of
Africa that the community try to bury in silence for as long as possible. “Thus, the praxis of
forgiveness enacted in The Dilemma does not seal the haunting memory of the past safely in the
past; nor does it initiate its exorcism. Its haunting is rather embraced because it will never allow
her community to return to the normality of "forgetfulness," "denial" and "amnesia." The ghost at
the junction will always be there reminding them of what they try to repress,” (Axiotou) Axiotou
believes that the ghost comes in the form of Eulalie and brings to light what the family, including
Ato, can no longer guiltily deny or ignore its existence.
Being an orphan, Eulalie carves to just fit in with Ato’s Ghanaian family. Although she
initially thinks she would be distancing herself from American racism by going to Africa, she is
obviously wrong. Yogita Goyal discusses the play in”Towards an African Atlantic: Ama Ata
Aidoo's Diasporic Theater”, pointing out that Ato and Eulalie might not be as different as most
readers think. The couple’s romance does suffer under intense pressure but perhaps because Ato
and Eulalie chose to focus on their differences rather than their similarities. “As the chorus of
women also suggests, the terms ‘’ghost’’ and ‘’wayfarer’’ are both euphemisms for a slave, who
represents someone who has lost his or her home or tribe, and is now unaffiliated and unloved,
someone who belongs nowhere,” (Goyal, Yogita) Yogita argues that Ato might just be the main
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bearer of the “ghost” metaphor, as his identity has dangerously faded in the process of being
away from home and family.
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Work Cited
Axiotou. 'Theatre of Impossible Forgiveness: Ama Ata Aidoo and the Dilemma of Slavery’.
Georgia Axiotou University of Edinburgh. Synthesis Fall 2009. Web
Goyal, Yogita. ‘Towards an African Atlantic: Ama Ata Aidoo's diasporic theater’. Atlantic
Studies. 2010. Web.