Changes: A Love Story

by Ama Ata Aidoo, Tuzyaline Jita Allan (Afterword)

Overview

A Commonwealth Prize–winning novel of “intense power . . . examining the role of women in modern African society” by the acclaimed Ghanaian author (Publishers Weekly).

Living in Ghana’s capital city of Accra with a postgraduate degree and a career in data analysis, Esi Sekyi is a thoroughly modern African woman. Perhaps that is why she decides to divorce her husband after enduring yet another morning’s marital rape. Though her friends and family are baffled by her decision (after all, he doesn’t beat her!), Esi holds fast. When she falls in love with a married man—wealthy, and able to arrange a polygamous marriage—the modern woman finds herself trapped in a new set of problems.

Witty and compelling, Aidoo’s novel, according to Manthia Diawara, “inaugurates a new realist style in African literature.” In an afterword to this edition, Tuzyline Jita Allan “places Aidoo’s work in a historical context and helps introduce this remarkable writer [who] sheds light on women’s problems around the globe” (Publishers Weekly).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781558610651
Publisher:	Feminist Press at CUNY, The
Publication date:	11/01/1993
Series:	Women Writing Africa Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	581,262
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Ama Ata Aidoo, one of Ghana's most distinguished writers, won the 1993 Commonwealth Writers Prize, Africa Division, for the novel Changes. She is also the author of two plays, poetry, and another novel, Our Sister Killjoy or Reflections From a Black-eyed Squint.

What People are Saying About This

Nikki Giovanni

"A wonderfully warm novel that truly shows that the more things remain the same (love) the more changes we (society) go through."

Introduction

"Aidoo has reaffirmed my failth in the power of the written word to reach, to teach, to empower and encourage."

Editorial Reviews

"Aidoo writes with intense power in a novel that, in examining the role of women in modern African society, also sheds light on women's problems around the globe."
—Publishers Weekly

"Changes reads... with abundant vernacular style, female friendship, and freedom and mobility in the modern city."
—Manthia Diawara, Director of Africana Studies and Professor of Comparative Literature and Film, New York University

"A powerful novel that explores the complex web of late 20th-century human relationships in ways that are both comic and deeply affecting."
—Boston Phoenix

"A wonderfully warm novel that truly shows that the more things remain the same (love) the more changes we (society) go through."
—Nikki Giovanni, author of Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People

From the Publisher

Aidoo ( Our Sister Killjoy or Reflections from a Black-Eyed Squint ) writes with intense power in a novel that, in examining the role of women in modern African society, also sheds light on women's problems around the globe. Esi, a woman living in Accra, Ghana, takes her career as a data analyst for the government seriously. An incident of marital rape, the result of her husband's anger at Esi's independence, leads to their separation. She is attracted to a married man named Ali who offers to make her his second wife. At first the arrangement appeals to Esi--she can make her work a priority--but eventually Ali's constant traveling and the way he puts off coming to see her begins to bother her. Aidoo makes use of different formats. Occasionally she provides an explanation in the form of a poetic note embedded in the text, and there are spurts of conversation in script form. In one such section Esi's mother and grandmother discuss her choice. Esi's no-nonsense grandmother says, ``Leave one man, marry another. What is the difference?'' Tuzyline Jita Allan, who teaches English at Baruch College, CUNY, provides an afterword that places Aidoo's work in a historical context and helps introduce this remarkable writer. First serial to Ms. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Despite its African setting, Changes mirrors universal feminist conflicts and concerns. Longtime friends and professional women Esi and Opokuya, who have been dealing differently with family issues, make attempts to juggle their many obligations to their husbands, their children, and their careers. Nevertheless, their sexist husbands, who are impervious to the feminist thinking of their wives, remain unsympathetic. Esi finally makes a statement by choosing divorce, career, and a polygamous remarriage--which ultimately becomes an exchange of one set of challenges for another. Prize-winning Ghanaian-born author Aidoo takes a satirical look at modern women and points out similarities in their lives--whether in Africa or anywhere else. Recommended for women's studies as well as general adult fiction collections.-- Ellen R. Cohen, Rockville, Md.

Library Journal