The Girl who Can- Ama Ata Aidoo

 The Girl who Can

By- Ama Ata Aidoo 

Summary 

Haszodi , it is a very big Village in the central region of Ghana. It is district known for its good fertile soil. The girl was born here.

Nana says that she don't know what the life is , what are all the problems in the life

Maami is my mother and Nana is my mother's mother. I know of a problem but it isn't the kind of problem Nana talks about , she added.

She is 7 year old. The only problem she thinks is as Nana and maami says there are certain things she can think in her bed but can't express. Because it is always very difficult to decide whether to speak up whatever comes to her mind or not. It isn't even easy to even get a grown up to listen to you. 

Whenever she is successful in getting attention of Nana to listen her , Nana burst out laughing. If anyone comes to Nana she would narrate same thing to the person and then two of them starts laughing. 

She then narrates that her Nana and mother discuss about her thin long legs from the day she was born. Her mother used to defend her but Nana couldn't she the inside tears of maami. She added how can Nana be good grown up if she talks about my legs everyday? 

Nana keeps saying that women should have solid hips and thick legs to be able to have children. But her mother always try to end this kind of discussions in the house . 

The girl decided to see legs of the women in her village. Because she has only seen naked lega of small girls. 

Nana and maami also discussed about school. Nana didn't find the idea of schooling intresting at all. But her mother wanted her to be educated. She was good at sports but didn't tell this thing at home thinking it not a big deal to discuss with her Nana and maami. 

Then she got selected as junior runner from her school at district level. Nana couldn't believe it but on confirming it herself she couldn't hide her excitement. Nana ironed her uniform. 

She won all the race and got a cup which Nana carried on her back all the way to home like a baby. Then Nana kept on saying that thin legs can also be useful. She wanted to tell everyone that legs can do many other things not only supporting babies. But didn't tell anyone.. fearing that they will all laugh at her . 

NOTES

Stepni Newell - the work of many African women writers strive to destabilize the African women fixed position in male writings as unproblematic or as something merely given. Because these definations are seen from women centred perspectives African women writings generate their own experience and symbols which are not merely obverse( opposite) of male tradition but s revision of the writing of malr predecessor but a multi dimensional discourse embedded in both female and male tradition. It is imperative then that the African Women's text be read not as a polarisation of male and female traditions but as a complex discourse with several intersting points criss crossing and interrogating each other continuously. 

Ama Ata Aidoo is from Ghana born in 1940, born in materilinal society of Ghana. Her mother encouraged her to study and write . Her own grandfather was jailed , tortured and killed. She said in a interview that she came from a long line of fighters.She graduated in 1964. She wrote her first play in graduation so she began as a playwright. She thought that education was one area where she could make difference. She even became the education minister but later she realised politics was not for her as she couldn't handle such power politics and resigned after a year. 

The question of women writers voice being muted has to do with the position of women in the society generally. The women writers are jus recieving the writers version of the general neglect and disregard that the women in the larger society recieve. 

Her contemporary male Ghanian writers tend to idealise certain female writers and they try to trap her into that image. Two famous Ghanian writers: Kofi Awoonor and Kwei Armaah. Aidoo talks about Armaah's novel named fragments which has a grandmother figure named Nana she is represented as somehow distilling the image of Ghana almost idealised and mythological kind. So Aidoo found it problematic that why can't it be a real figure why to bring something totally out of box.