Anowa
Anowa is a play by Ghanaian
playwright Ama Ata Aidoo
published in 1970. It is based on a traditional Ghanaian tale of a daughter who rejects suitors proposed by her parents, Osam and Badua, and marries a
stranger who ultimately is revealed as the Devil in disguise. The play is set in the 1870s on the Gold Coast,
and tells the story of the heroine Anowa's failed marriage to the slave trader
Kofi Ako.
The
play has a unique trait where a couple, an old man and an old woman, play the
role of the Chorus.
They present themselves at crucial points in the play and give their own views
on the events in the play.
Anowa's
attitude of being a modern independent woman angers Kofi Ako. He requests her
to be like other normal women. Anowa lives in a hallucinated
world and the sorrow of not bearing a
child depresses
her. Her rich husband, now frustrated with his wife asks her to leave him. Anowa argues with him
and finds out that he had lost his ability to bear children and the fault was
in him and not in her. This disclosure of the truth drives Kofi Ako to shoot
himself and Anowa drowns herself.
Anowa
represents the modern woman who likes to make her own decisions and live life
as per her choice. An additional conflict is that although a tribal woman, she has the traits of a city-bred. Her attitude
leads to her destruction.
References
- Parekh, P.N.; Jagne, S.F. (1998). Postcolonial African Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Greenwood Press. p. 32. ISBN 9780313290565. Retrieved 2015-11-09.
- Gilbert, H. (2001). Postcolonial Plays: An Anthology. Routledge. p. 97. ISBN 9780415164498. Retrieved 2015-11-09.
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