OUR SISTER KILL JOY

NOTES

INTRODUCTION
Our Sister Killjoy by Ama Ata Aidoo was first published in 1977. It is also entitled Reflections from a
Black-eyed Squint. When the book was first published, most reviews were highly positive and the work was
called a witty and experimental. The novel was written partially in the United States which may reflect
Aidoo‟s own travels abroad (Wilentz 159).The novel discusses many themes including Black Diaspora,
Colonialism, Racism, Exile, Identity Crisis, Colonial Education, and Colonization of the Mind. This novel
can be seen as “a working out of her rage against the white oppressors and their Ghanaian abettors.”

The semi-autobiographical novel, Our Sister Killjoy or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint, exposes the
psychological effects of colonialism upon the colonized people, showing how a country, although gained its
independence, suffers as if it were still under colonization. In the novel, Ghana is presented as imprisoned by
discriminative education, Western ideology domination and brain drain that seem to disturb its progress
(Demafiles). In other words, Aidoo‟s Our Sister Killjoy makes it clear that it is not easy for a colony to
completely break with the restraining influences of the colonizers.
In Our Sister Killjoy, Aidoo presents the reality behind the scholarships given to fortunate African people.
She explains how those people who internalize Western ideologies refuse to return home to face national
realities and rebuild their countries. This is one of the major problems that most developing countries,
including our Arab countries, have been suffering from till today. “Although Aidoo experienced the
supposed freedom of traveling herself, her novel implies her commitment to rebuild her former colonized
home and confront those who have forgotten their duty to their native land”

Sissie, the central character, is certainly a "killjoy" who looks at everything with a "black-eyed squint". Yet,
as in the case of her creator, hers is a generous as well as a volcanic nature, "a wild heart but not a mean
one", and compassion and humour, added to patriotism, help balance the bitterness and "negativism" which
might otherwise be 'so corrosive".

The first part of the novel, concerned with Sissie's encounter with a young German woman who eventually
tries to seduce her, is the most promising. Marija's plight brings home to Sissie the fundamental loneliness of
Western people. The sympathy is checked--"Why weep for them?"--but it exists, as does the laughter, albeit
tinged with malice. The other two, shorter sections of the novel, have little to match the handling of [this]
relationship. The next attempts to weave together Sissie's impressions of London with her disgust at the
celebrated heart-transplant involving a black donor and a white recipient, and her mourning of another
"been-to" who is killed in his imported car. The final part of the novel, "A Love Letter" to the boyfriend
alienated by Sissie's "big mouth", is largely a defence of her passionate commitment to Africa. We leave her
on the plane above the "crazy old continent" she now knows she has given her heart to.

As the claim of independence in Africa sets ceremonies and political celebration, there the grip of colonizers
that are not purposely removed was continuously eating up African identity itself for generations and
generations. The novel by Ama Ata Aidoo Our Sister Killjoy or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint, a
semi autobiography novel, portrays the face of Africa after independence in the setting of Ghana. Where
Ghana as the first sub-Saharan African colony of Britain that attained freedom from the colonizers was
shown as imprisoned by Discriminative Education, Western Ideology and Brain Drain that seems to hinder
their progress. Indeed they have attained independence; they had the year and all the history books to prove
it. But how come they still suffered as if they are under colonization.

TITLE SIGNIFICANCE

Aidoo’s title of the novel, Our Sister Killjoy - Or Reflections From A Black-Eyed Squint, symbolically
reflects a new African encounter with the West. It explores the thoughts and experiences of Sissie, a young
Ghanaian woman who travels to Europe on a scholarship. In her journey, Sissie travels from Ghana to
Germany and England and then returns to Ghana. In the novel, everything is seen through the squinted eyes
of the modern, educated young woman, Sissie, who starts to realize that “England is another thing”
The title implies that Aidoo, through her mouthpiece, Sissie, does not have any intention of adoring the
European colonizers and their culture. On the one hand, Sissie is a "killjoy" who spoils the fun of the
European self-esteemed colonizers who try to impress her with the European civilization and its openness to
difference. She kills the joy of her German friend, Marija, as she indifferently rejects Marija‟s odd sexual
advances, reflecting upon the miserable life of European women who are suffering from loneliness and self-
alienation. On the other hand, Sissie is a killjoy to the African self-exiles who are self-deceptively infatuated
with European culture and forget their own homelands. Unlike those Africans, she remains true to her home
and never loses sight of her role and duty towards her homeland. As a matter-of-fact and practical woman,
Sissie is never fascinated with the European culture and civilization. Rather she spends all her meetings with
the African self-exiles discussing the political situation of Africa.
She irritatingly reminds them of how they value the colonizer‟s world more than their own and how they
come back home only to complain and exploit rather than build their own nations. They prefer to lie and
pretend to be happy rather than confronting the hard truths of reality. Hence, she kills their superficial joy by
exposing the reality of their pretended happiness in Europe and by highlighting their sufferings and the
miserable conditions in which they live. Even her letter to her lover, who has decided to remain in exile, is
more political in nature than romantic. Sissie here is seen as a killjoy as she asks her lover and others in exile
to come out of their delusions and forces them to acknowledge their duties towards there motherland. Thus,
they consider her too serious and a killjoy. As she puts it herself;
They say that any female in my position would have thrown away everything to be with you, and
remain with you: first her opinions, and then her own plans...what did I rather do but daily and
loudly criticize you and your friends for wanting to stay forever in alien places?...Maybe I regret that
I could not shut up and meekly look up to you... but you see, no one ever taught me such meekness.
(117)

STYLE
At the level of form, the novel is written in a very unique and innovative style which made Aidoo‟s
narration more powerful. It is a mixture of prose, poetry and letter writing. Therefore, it cannot be called a
“novel” in the traditional sense. Our Sister Killjoy is divided into four sections. The first short section is
titled Into a Bad Dream where Sissie travels to Germany. It prepares the reader for a journey to the land of
the colonizers. The second long section is titled The Plums where Sissie befriends Marija Sommer, a
German lady whose husband is never home. The third section is entitled From Our Sister Killjoy where
Sissie arrives at London which brings back to her mind the British colonial experience in Ghana. In London,
she meets the Ghanaian self-exile, Kunle, and discovers how Black African immigrants are suffering. The
last section is titled A Love Letter which seems like a dialogue between a man and a woman. In this section,
Sissie recounts her meetings with the African self-exiles especially Kunle, her lover, asking them to come
out of their delusions and return back to contribute to the development of their homeland.
The text is presented in a (vaguely) stream-of- experience manner, communicating the quizzical, frequently
sarcastic or indeed harsh value judgments and analyses of the protagonist (Sissie; “Sister Killjoy” who
refuses to be charmed or naively overawed). In many places the “narrative” changes pace into a form of free
verse — by means of which Sissie presents some of her most biting, or occasionally sympathetic
observations.

Character List
Sissie
Sissie is a young Ghanaian woman who travels to Europe on a scholarship. She first works in a village in
Bavaria, where she is the only Black person, and then travels to London, where there are many Black
people, most of whom immigrated in search of a better life but now live in squalid conditions. Sissie is
awakened politically and culturally, and begins to develop strong opinions about the tragedy of the "brain
drain" from Africa and the lack of interest educated Africans show in returning to their home countries. She
is a woman of conviction and principle, sometimes offending others with her stridency (hence the nickname
"Killjoy"), and loses a beloved boyfriend because he tires of her uncompromising beliefs.

Marija Sommer
Marija is a lower-class German woman married to a man who works in the factory in the village Sissie is
staying in. She is not very educated and knows little about colonialism or the world outside Germany. She is
taken with Sissie and wants to be her friend, but it is clear that she is exoticizing Sissie. As their friendship
deepens, Marija develops sexual feelings for Sissie and tries to seduce her. When Sissie rebuffs her and then
leaves the village for Munich, Marija is deeply depressed.

Kunle
Kunle is an expatriate and Ghanian relative of Sissie's friend whom she meets up with in London. He has
been living in London for seven years and does not want to return to Ghana because he admires the West
and thinks he will not have as many opportunities back home.
He adds a layer of true horror to Sissie's perception of Europe. Although in her program, she is often
pampered and spoiled, Kunle warns her that the Europeans hold archaic, hateful ideas about Africans, and
he tells her a scary story about a white doctor using a Black man's heart to save a white man.
When he does return home, he wants to impress everyone with his wealth so he buys a car and instead of
driving it himself, hires a chauffeur who is not a good driver. The chauffeur crashes and Kunle dies.

Sammy
Sammy is a Black man who attends the party at the ambassador's house in Ghana on the eve of Sissie's trip.
She finds him pompous.

Gertie, Jayne, Marilyn

They are young women who work at the camp with Sissie.

Big Adolf and Little Adolf

They are Marija's husband and baby son. Her husband is only discussed, not seen in the action of the text.

Sissie's Ex-Boyfriend

While we do not actually see him in the text other than through Sissie's letter, we learn she met her ex-
boyfriend at one of the students' meetings. He is intelligent, studying to be a doctor, and is nationalist in his
thinking like Sissie. But unlike Sissie, he considers himself more pragmatic and thinks she is too relentlessly
negative. He eventually leaves her.

THEMES
Ama Ata Aidoo's "Our Sister Killjoy" is a deeply layered novel that explores several key themes, ranging
from post-colonial identity to the complexities of love and alienation. Here are some of the central themes in
the novel:

Post-Colonial Identity and the African Diaspora

One of the most significant themes in "Our Sister Killjoy" is the exploration of post-colonial African
identity. The protagonist, Sissie, travels from Africa to Europe, and through her eyes, the novel delves into
the complexities of being an African in a post-colonial world. Sissie grapples with the contradictions
between European ideals and African realities, questioning the assimilation of Western values by Africans
and the alienation it creates. Aidoo critiques the effects of colonialism on African consciousness, as Sissie
becomes increasingly disillusioned with the West and those Africans who abandon their roots for European
lifestyles.

Sissie’s journey mirrors the internal struggle of many post-colonial Africans, torn between embracing
Western modernity and remaining true to their heritage.

Aidoo raises questions about African intellectuals and elites who, after being educated abroad, return
with a sense of superiority over their homeland, perpetuating colonial mindsets.

2. Alienation and Exile

Throughout her time in Europe, Sissie experiences profound alienation. The foreignness of European
culture makes her feel isolated and disconnected from her African identity. The novel portrays the physical
and emotional dislocation that comes with living in exile, where the protagonist must constantly navigate
cultural differences and the sense of not belonging. This alienation is not just geographical but also
emotional, as Sissie becomes increasingly detached from both the Africans she meets abroad and Europeans,
whom she criticizes for their ignorance about Africa.

Sissie's sense of alienation reflects the broader experience of African diaspora members who struggle to
reconcile their cultural identities with life in the West.

Aidoo critiques the Eurocentrism that assumes European superiority while disregarding African cultures
and experiences.

3. Cultural Clash and Critique of Western Civilization

Aidoo critiques Western civilization, questioning its values, morality, and impact on African societies.
Sissie observes how Europeans view Africa with a mixture of ignorance and condescension, portraying
Western civilization as destructive rather than enlightening. She criticizes Western materialism, racism, and
the lingering effects of colonialism, which continues to oppress and exploit African nations. The novel is
particularly critical of Western ideas of progress and development, which often come at the expense of
African identity and self-determination.

The novel explores how Western superiority and materialism create a distorted view of Africa as inferior
and primitive.

Sissie’s reflections challenge the reader to rethink the relationship between Africa and the West,
particularly how Africa is perceived and treated in the global context.

4. Feminism and Gender

Feminist concerns are woven throughout the novel, as Aidoo uses Sissie's character to explore gender roles
and the marginalization of African women. Sissie, as a strong, independent woman, represents a new kind of
African feminist consciousness. Her interactions with both African men and Europeans highlight the
patriarchal structures in both societies. Aidoo critiques the ways in which African women, both at home and
abroad, are expected to adhere to traditional roles, while also pointing out how Western feminist ideals often
fail to address the unique struggles of African women.

Sissie's independence and refusal to conform to traditional gender roles represent Aidoo's feminist vision
of African women challenging both patriarchal African traditions and Eurocentric feminism.

Aidoo critiques the oppression of African women by both African men and Western societies,
emphasizing the need for a uniquely African feminist perspective.

5. Colonial Legacy and Neocolonialism

Aidoo explores the enduring influence of colonialism on African societies, even after formal independence.
Sissie’s travels reveal how neocolonialism persists in the form of economic dependency, cultural
assimilation, and intellectual subjugation. Aidoo critiques the African elites who perpetuate this
neocolonialism by embracing Western values, often at the expense of their own people. The novel
underscores the idea that true independence for African nations has yet to be realized, as they continue to be
manipulated and controlled by Western powers.

The novel critiques African elites who adopt Western lifestyles and values, contributing to the ongoing
exploitation and marginalization of Africa.
Aidoo highlights the economic and cultural forms of neocolonialism that keep African nations in a state
of dependency.

6. Love and Relationships

Love and relationships are central to "Our Sister Killjoy," particularly in the context of power dynamics
and cultural differences. Sissie's brief romantic encounter with Marija, a German woman, introduces
complex themes of interracial love, power, and alienation. The relationship is marked by cultural
misunderstandings, with Sissie feeling that Marija represents the Western world’s problematic relationship
with Africa. This relationship also serves as a metaphor for the exploitative and unequal dynamic between
the West and Africa.

The relationship between Sissie and Marija can be seen as symbolic of the broader political and
economic relations between Africa and Europe.

The novel explores how personal relationships are often shaped by larger socio-political dynamics,
including colonialism, race, and power.

7. The Role of the Intellectual

Another key theme is the role of the intellectual in post-colonial African society. Sissie’s reflections raise
questions about the responsibilities of educated Africans, particularly those who have studied abroad, toward
their home countries. Aidoo critiques those who abandon their roots in pursuit of personal gain, urging
African intellectuals to contribute to the development and empowerment of their own societies instead of
perpetuating Western ideologies.

Aidoo challenges African intellectuals to reject the allure of Western values and instead focus on
addressing the needs of their own societies.

The novel questions the value of Western education when it alienates individuals from their cultural
roots and societal obligations.

Racism:
In Our Sister Killjoy, Aidoo alludes to the problems that face the Ghanaian students who have left their
country in order to study in Europe. She highlights the difficulties and hardships they face as a strategy to
expose stereotypes and their effects. From the very beginning of the novel, Aidoo shows how stereotyping
leads to racism and discrimination. At the plane, a white hostess asked Sissie to go to the back of the plane
in order to join other black African students. It was her first encounter with racism and discrimination. The
narrator comments: Immediately after they were airborne and instructions had come for them to loosen their
belts and feel free to smoke, a neatly coiffure hostess of the airline walked to her. She said,‟ You want to
join your two friends at the back, yes?‟
European colonizers purposefully create stereotypes as a means to justify colonialism and assert their
superiority. In this novel, Aidoo has powerfully emphasized this critical point. Conspicuously, she illustrates
how the European colonizers have consciously used racial difference as an excuse to occupy more lands and
have hegemony over the colonized nations under the guise of civilizing missions. When Sissie reached
Germany, she becomes conscious of the color of her complexion for the first time.
The narrator further comments:
But what she also came to know was that someone somewhere would always see in any kind of
difference, an excuse to be mean. A way to get land, land, more land. (13)

It is that difference in color which makes the European colonizer feels superior to the Black Other. It is the
White Europeans‟ insistence to consciously look at the Other as essentially „different‟ which creates their
sense of egocentrism, self-pride and hence the exclusion of the Other. According to Fanon, the colonialist
does not only view the new world as one of difference, but as the opposite of all that is human and civil and
"paints the native as a sort of quintessence of evil":
The native is declared insensible to ethics; he represents not only the absence of values, but also the
negation of values. He is, let us dare to admit, the enemy of values, and in this sense he is the absolute
evil. (Wretched 32)
Stereotyping the Black African as dangerous, immoral, and dark is clearly illustrated in the novel. When
Marija befriended Sissie, German people started to wonder and consider that there must be something wrong
in their relationship. They cannot see or accept this relationship as something normal.
Why does she always walk with the black girl? asked the director of the local branch of a bank.
Marija views Sissie through a racialist lens, asking her, “Are you an Indian?” (OSK 19) Blinded by her
stereotypical preconceptions, the white, Marija, tends to generalize the view and assumes that Sissie is an
Indian just because of her coffee color skin, neglecting the fact that vast differences of language, culture, and
history distinguish one “black” group from another.
Aidoo attempts to humanize the White Europeans, emphasizes equality and asserts that human differences
of color or culture do not necessarily represent the real character of the individual.
Inferiority Complex And Identity Crises
Colonialism and its missionaries have affected the culture of the colonized nations by installing and
generalizing stereotypes of them. Consequently, this resulted in creating somehow an inferiority complex in
the part of the colonized nations. In other words, colonialism along with colonial education has influenced
the language and culture of the Ghanaians and helped in normalizing the colonial discourse among the
natives. Accordingly, the black Africans in Europe suffer from identity crisis in their attempt to imitate
Western culture.
In fact, inferiority complex, which subsequently leads to identity crisis, is one of the most crucial effects of
stereotyping. In the novel, African students feel inferior and start to imitate the West as a strategy to gain
respect in the society. As a result of being caught between two cultures, they suffer from self-alienation.The
dreadful condition of Kunle, Sissie‟s lover, and his fellows is a good example. Kunle feels inferior and
declares that by remaining in Europe, he serves a very useful purpose in educating the Europeans to
recognize his worth.

Aidoo, both as a writer and as a scholar, has played an important role in the development of African
literature and literary criticism.

According to Hoeller, Aidoo‟s entire work focuses on the colonial and postcolonial experience of Ghanaians
in particular and Africans in general, as she put it herself in an interview: “It‟s beautiful to have
independence, but it‟s what has happened to our minds that is to me the most frightening thing about the
colonial experience” (McGeorge 26, qtd. in Hoeller 33).

In other words, how does Aidoo, in the process of writing back, counteract or resist the stereotypes
colonizers invented of her people, history, or culture, showing how stereotyping can sustain racism and
lead to prejudice and bigotry?

Aidoo here uses English to subvert colonial discourse and unveil the reality of colonialism and its effects
on her people. She has explicitly showed a concern to correct the misrepresentations of the
African/Ghanaian culture and history.

the novel is read as a reversal of the colonial travel narrative presenting the continued asymmetrical
power relations between Europe and Africa
In her novel Our Sister Killjoy, Aidoo writes about the negative effects of colonialism and exposes the
psychological effects of colonialism and "what Europe is and does to those Africans whom it “sponsors” and
educates" (Gagiano). Aidoo criticizes those Africans who left Africa to go to Europe to receive what is
perceived by the majority to be a better education. She reveals how most of those educated people are
molded into being like the Europeans by internalizing the ideologies of the colonizer. In short, Aidoo‟s
postcolonial. African fiction is Janus-faced in nature. On the one hand, it specifically deconstructs various
indigenous issues which are destabilizing Ghanaian society and politics, while on the other hand it
challenges the discursive construction of Ghana, its people, history and culture as primitive and uncivilized
through colonial discourse.
Symbols and Motifs
Symbol: Mercedes-Benz
The absurdity of Western society is demonstrated in one timely symbol. Sissie comes from a rural village
community in Ghana, which means that she is not used to seeing lavish (perhaps vulgar) demonstrations of
wealth, but when she arrives for her scholarship program in Germany, she rides in a Mercedes-Benz and
suddenly she realizes that life for the wealthy in an established nation is a kind of luxurious heaven. It strikes
her with the full weight of existential absurdity.
Plums
Sissie falls in love with the Bavarian plums, which are symbols of eroticism, sexuality, femininity, youth,
and beauty. Aidoo writes that the plums possess things Sissie possesses for a time: "Youthfulness / Peace of
mind / Feeling free: / Knowing you are a rare article, / Being / Loved" (40).
Motif: Eating
Aidoo uses food and eating as a motif in order to explore the differences between Europe and Africa and to
limn Sissie's character. Sissie finds Europe's food cold and "tasteless" (90)—and its weather cold and hostile
—which she contrasts with Africa. But she is, however, intrigued by its fruit, which Aidoo uses as a way to
convey Sissie's sensuality and vibrancy and to contrast her with the sterile women of Germany.
Motif: Cold
Aidoo uses cold as a motif in the text to distinguish Europe from Africa and to ultimately conclude that
Europe is a sterile, hostile, and bland place. She says she's been to "a cold strange land where dogs and cats
eat better than many children" (99), cannot understand why people in Europe eat cold food, and decides that
"it had something to do with white skins, corn-silk hair, and very cold weather" (68). London in particular is
freezing, and Africans huddle in a "single cold room by a / Paraffin lamp, / Covering its / Nakedness and /
Disappointed hopes" (88).
Symbol: Clothing
Clothing is often a symbol of a person's class, status, culture, and/or personality, and when Sissie gets to
London and observes the clothing African men and women are wearing, she realizes that their garb is
indicative of their diminished stature. Yet, with the colors and layers the women wear they still maintain an
air of beauty and power, and the clothes would make people of any other color look "ridiculously pathetic"
(89). Clothing can symbolize much, but not everything.

POLITICS OF EXHILE
If our black-eyed squint mentally reprimands the colonizers because of their history of domination, she
looks equally askance at the African self-exiles who have bought the colonial line. In Germany, our
sojourner reacts to the various Europeans she meets and plays off her memories of home against this alien
environment. But it is her trip to England that conjures up a personal response to colonialism and compels
her to issue a direct attack on her countrymen who have considered it politically expedient to remain in
exile. She comments in the opening of this diary-like section "From Our Sister Killjoy": "If anyone had told
her that she would want to pass through England because it was her colonial home, she would have laughed.
. . . But to London she had gone anyway" (85). This section, compiled like so many journal entries, is a
report to family and community (those mothers left behind) on the state of the self-exiles who have not only
forgotten to return to help with the process of decolonization, but who forget even to answer the letters
pleading to learn of their health and whereabouts. For the African self-exiles in England, Our Sister really is
a killjoy. She confronts the life she sees there, not the one which has been paraded before the folks back
home. For many exiles, "the desire to lose oneself in the [European] world was understandable: a naive faith
that this is the way to escape the feeling of exile" (Dorsinville 63). But Sissie does not become caught up in
the exiles' dream; she sees the life they lead with clarity. Her piercing look exposes the lies that have been
sent back to the provinces. Her amazement at finding so many black people in London is painfully
accentuated by her acknowledgment of their poverty:
Above all, what hurt Our Sister as she . . . watched her people was how badly dressed they were. They were
all poorly clothed. The women especially were pitiful. She saw women who at home would have been
dignified matrons as well as young, attractive girls. . . . She wondered why they never told the truth of their
travels at home. (88-89)

Many of the theories of exile focus on a sort of freedom felt by separating oneself from the constraints of the
home country; this feeling of freedom is linked with a distorted sense of importance for the colonial exile.
Furthermore, for the third world exile, as Fanon points out, this freedom also involves a rejection of both
racial and cultural identification. Again, although this example may extend to women self-exiles, F anon
appears to be using the term "he" not as gender inclusive, but as a specific aspect of the psychological
disturbances of these male self-exiles.
Aidoo underscores this point in her discussion of a Ghanaian self-exile, Kunle, who believes that the
problems of apartheid will be solved by Western technology. He illustrates his point by citing the fact that a
"good Christian" white South African doctor used the heart of a young black man for a transplant to keep an
old white man alive. When confronted by the confused Sissie and her friend on which hearts were used in
earlier attempts at transplants, he answers eagerly, "He must have experimented on the hearts of dogs and
cats" (97). Kunle, caught up in his identification with the dominant culture's "advances," has no
comprehension of the irony of his own comments. For Sissie, Kunle not only represents the self-exile who
values the colonizers' world more than his own, he also represents the "been-to" who comes home with an
exile's consciousness to complain and exploit rather than help build the nation. His identification with the
culture of his exile makes him unable to confront the political realities at home. Although he returns to his
native land, as Aime Cesaire calls it, he is not willing to sacrifice and utilize his skills to improve conditions.
Instead:
Kunle, like so many of us, wished he had had the courage to be coward enough to stay forever in England.
Though life 'home' has its compensations. The aura of having been overseas at all. Belonging to the elite,
whatever that is. The sweet pain of getting a fairly big income which can never half support one's own style
of living. . . . (107)

In a further incorporation of the dominant culture's values, the self-exiled men demand what Sissie calls
"hashed-up Victorian notions" for their women, in spite of the fact that they should understand that African
women were not brought up to be like the "dolls of the colonizers" (117). In her other works, Aidoo has
concentrated on the strength of the African woman as well as the domination-both male and colonial-over
her. In Killjoy, she confronts the colonized male's notion of the ideal African woman (all softness and
meekness) when these men have forgotten the real African women at home. In this love letter, Sissie
recounts her most direct confrontation with the African self-exiles. Sissie speaks out at an African student
union meeting. They spend hours discussing the political situation in the home countries but do not see the
denial of their services as part of the problem. Tired of the "beautiful radical analyses of the situation at
home," Sissie asks these exiles why they just don't hurry back and do something about it (121). She
examines each of their reasons for exile and calls them excuses. Her greatest distress, however, is directed at
a doctor who stays in exile because he feels that his sophisticated medical skills would be wasted in his
country. Rather than dealing with the reality that many doctors are needed in Africa, he is proud that he can
remain to educate the Europeans to "recognize our worth".This, of course, is what Fanon indicates as the
final stage of internal colonization-to isolate oneself from one's own society and identify totally with the
colonizer. Only in this world are one's skills valuable; the self-exile "congratulates himself" on the fact that
"his race no longer understands him" or appreciates his skills (F anon 14). To Sissie, this "brilliant" doctor
becomes the symbol of everything "distasteful about all the folks who have decided to stay overseas" (126).
He and others like him, who consider their only duty to the country is to send some money home to their
mothers, deny a deeper commitment to their family and land of their birth; they squander their talents on the
colonizers, who would rather see them "run, jump and sing".
‘Our Sister’, she is the messenger of the people, her kin, to the land of exiles. For Sissie, "the tale is not done
being told" and, as the eyes of her community, she will return home to tell this tale to the mothers and other
family members (121). Here is where the self-exiles are most nakedly exposed: they are afraid to go home.
Sissie's tale, as a sister, is for the community as a whole but especially for the African mother who, as both
the self-exiles and Sissie agree, has suffered. But she cannot be appeased-nor can "Mother Africa"-by a
paltry sum. She needs to see her children face-to-face, bringing their skills for national development that she
"scrimped and saved and mortgaged her dignity for" back home (123).
In this novel, it is the protagonist's social vision that differs from her male counterpart's; she discerns exactly
what the politics of self-exile is. And like her protagonist, Aidoo saw through the false paradise of the exile
during her stays in the United States and Europe, and she has remained, for the most part, in Ghana to be
part of its national development. As an African woman writer, Aidoo questions the freedom of the exile who
denies both familial and community ties. In spite of the "uncertainties" that exist there, because of her ties to
the land and its people.In Killjoy, she presents an African woman who does not flee the constraints imposed
on her by her society, but instead takes the responsibility to be the "eyes" of her community and exposes the
world of the self-exiles who have forsaken their familial land.

Our Sister Killjoy: Critiquing Nationalism

It is clear, however, that many of those who emigrate from Africa to the West, do indeed benefit and gain
from leaving their country of origin. This is true particularly of the educated elite and upper classes who
travel to Europe to pursue their education or to seek higher wages and better conditions in which to exercise
skilled professions. Aidoo critique these people for abandoning their own country, not contributing to its
development, and failing to aid in fulfilling the needs of the people whom they have left behind. When
Sissie is in Germany, she critiques Indian and Ghanaian doctors who practice abroad when the countries
they have left behind are in even greater need of their medical knowledge and the services they could
provide. However, Aidoo also clearly understands that the material and political conditions in Ghana are
such that they hinder the ability of people to practice their professions effectively and also make it materially
disadvantageous for people to stay. As she says,

So, please,
Don't talk to me of the
Brain -
Drain -
Which of us stays in these days?
But those of us who fear
We cannot survive abroad,
One reason or another ?(p.32).

Despite her understanding of the material conditions which cause people to emigrate from Africa, she
nonetheless decries this departure and in particular the hypocrisy of those who espouse nationalist rhetoric
and proffer solutions to the problems in Africa when they themselves have chosen to remain abroad and live
a more privileged life in which they can escape many of these problems. Aidoo's position is somewhat
contradictory in regards to nationalism. While she critiques the hypocrisy of those who espouse nationalist
rhetoric and do nothing, she herself critiques them on the basis of a nationalist ideology which does not
seem to offer any concrete solutions to the problems which she raises. There is a sense that she is calling for
some kind of 'real' or 'meaningful' nationalism but there is no real sense as to what that signifies. The type of
cultural nationalism as exemplified in Sissie seems highly contradictory as, on the one hand, she tends to
glorify Africa in opposition to the Western Developed countries through her constant disparagement of
European customs and the climate; and, on the other hand, she clearly points to the problems that plague
African society and compel people to leave it. It seems then, that while Sissie is certainly accurate in her
critique of the hypocrisy of the nationalism of Ghanaians abroad; her own nationalism, while not
hypocritical, offers little more in terms of a solution.

Aidoo's harshest critique is reserved for the students whom she portrays as perpetually extending their
studies abroad so as not to be obligated to return while at the same time positioning themselves as experts on
the national problems of their home countries. While in London, Sissie attends a students' union meeting in
where she intervenes to critique these intellectuals, "pleading that instead of forever gathering together and
virtuously spouting such beautiful radical analyses of the situation at home, we should simply hurry back?"
(p.121). Aidoo critiques this hypocritical form of nationalism of an educated elite who have the privilege to
escape the problems that prevail their home countries and who do nothing to attempt to improve the
conditions of the people whom they have left behind. At the same time, however, she clearly demonstrates
that the conditions in Ghana are such that they compel people to leave. As she says,
...the form of nationalism as evident in the posturings of Africans in the diaspora becomes
and excuse, a kind of smokescreen behind which these people lead their lives uninterrupted
and still manage to convince themselves that they are still very much in tune with what's
going on at home. I consider it dangerous. On the other hand, we are caught in a kind of
almost no-win situation.(...)Against the loud, abrasive and really empty postures of our
people abroad, you can counter or you can sort of look at it against the neo-colonial situation
at home which has compelled people to compromise in order to survive.

In this context, the letters which the Ghanaians abroad receive from home function as a constant reminder of
the real material difficulties which their families, who do not have the privilege to leave, still face
daily .They are dreaded as they remind them of their own position of privilege in as well as their inability or
unwillingness to provide the necessary aid to those they left behind. Idealized constructions of the West as
guaranteeing prosperity and success to those who attain this ideal lead to the belief that the 'been-to' if he or
she returns will be able to provide for his or her family and elevate them out of their impoverished material
conditions to a status of wealth and prestige. The letters from home thus demonstrate the 'been-tos' families
hope that those abroad will return to alleviate their material difficulties.

These letters thus act as reminders of the drastic material conditions that exist in Ghana and the
responsibility of those abroad to help alleviate the difficulties of those they have left behind. They remind
those abroad of their privileged status and what is perceived as their duty towards the people of their society.
They point also to the gap between their rhetorical ability to analyze the problems of their society and their
inability to provide any material relief to those who actually face those problems daily. The letters are thus
anticipated with dread and further encourage the educated elite to "wish[.. they] had the courage to be a
coward enough to stay forever in England" (p.107). where they can escape many of the economic and
political problems that plague Ghanaian society.

While Aidoo critiques those members of the educated elite who stay abroad, she also critiques those who do
return to take advantage of the privileged status that 'been-tos' enjoy in Ghanaian society. As she says, "
(...)life 'home' has its compensations. The aura of having been overseas at all. Belonging to the elite,
whatever that is." Aidoo satirizes the prestige associated with being a 'been-to' through the character of
Kunle who returns and attempts to take advantage of his privileged status by flaunting more wealth than he
even has and who in his attempt to prove himself deserving of the awe with which he is regarded by virtue
of his studies abroad, brings about his own death. In his attempt to prove himself a man of prestige, Kunle
refuses to drive his own car and hires a chauffeur despite the fact that he himself is a better driver and thus
dies in a car crash. In the end, Kunle, despite having achieved the ultimate symbol of success by studying
abroad dies a pointless death and in no way contributes to the improvement of the material conditions in
Ghana. The futility of Kunle's death points to the destructive effects that the desire for prestige and a
privileged status can have while also shattering the aura of prestige which surrounds 'been-tos'.

POST-COLONIALISM

Post-colonialism in Ama Ata Aidoo’s "Our Sister Killjoy" is expressed through a profound critique of the
lingering effects of colonialism on African identity, intellectual life, and political structures. Aidoo critiques
the alienation experienced by Africans in exile, the complicity of African elites in maintaining Western
dominance, and the ongoing neo-colonial exploitation of the continent. Through Sissie’s journey, the novel
calls for a return to African roots, the decolonization of the African mind, and a rejection of Western
materialism and cultural superiority. The novel serves as a powerful reflection on the complexities of post-
colonial identity and the continuing struggles for true independence and self-determination.

Sissie’s journey reflects the broader post-colonial experience of Africans who, after the formal end of
colonialism, struggle to reconcile their native cultural identity with the influences of Western education and
values. Sissie’s encounters with Europeans and fellow Africans living abroad bring to the forefront the
identity crisis many post-colonial subjects face when navigating between two worlds.