DISCUSSION LITERATURE

In the Cutting of a Drink

Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana)

Pronounce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjoieLLWYng

http://www.literarymama.com/profiles/archives/2016/02/a-profile-of-ama-ata-aidoo-draft.html

Ama Ata Aidoo on feminism in Africa - BBC HARDtalk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_gJwy9yjrk

The Art of Ama Ata Aidoo Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7wKuYsa7mw

Documentary on the life of Ama Ata Aidoo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVBacMQ4zGM

In the Cutting of a Drink

In the Cutting of a Drink is more than the story of an obstinate girl who doesn’t like school and won’t clean for others and, as a result, heads off to the big city. With her skill bank, how does she support herself?

Think: options for girls/women and escapism into the Big City.

Not so long ago in the West a woman left her father’s house and control to live under her husband’s control. Inheritances flowed from one man to another. Often children followed suit. This is not unknown in certain other cultures at present. This is nonpersonhood.

If a woman did not marry and sought to live independently, the choices were meager. She might become a teacher if educated or household help (service). Of course, the poorer the family, the worse the outcomes generally. One could marry and still be needed to help provide for the family.

There are roles to play. Most families and cultures have them. To venture from the path invites shunning and disinheritance or worse.

The story tells of clashes – clashes between family members and clashes between country and city.

There is the brother’s perspective – heavily rooted as he is in the country’s rural values. The brother journeys to the city – the capitalistic stronghold --seeking his sister and then finding her against impossible odds. The intense city has intense movement and sound. It is disquieting. It is quite simply incredibly foreign and uncomfortable.

The sister flees to the city which is so often a mass of unknowing, but one with promise. Surely it must harbor what is missing at home. Surely opportunity may exist in the city. It is so large with so many means to earn money.

But, shockingly, the country brother discovers his sister in an unacceptable place doing the unacceptable.

In the capitalistic world, she sells herself as a commodity. She is working.

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Aidoo succeeds at several levels. She confronts the socio and political problems of modern Africa. She uses Ghanaian speech patterns in her dialogues and monologues to create tension. She is also a critic of post colonialism.

She is an author of poems, plays, and fiction.