In search of a post-transatlantic slave trade dwelling and conviviality

Rethinking Ghana’s ‘Year of Return’ with Ama Ata Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost (1965)

Dados Bibliográficos

ID13004076
AutoresRogers Asempasah (0000-0003-1272-1211, University of Cape Coast, autor correspondente), Samuel Ato Bentum (0000-0002-8545-7100, University of Cape Coast)
Ano2023
Volume15
Fascículo3
Páginas342-355
Data de publicação2023-02-17
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCritical African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2040-7211 • E-ISSN: 2168-1392
EditoraTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21681392.2023.2176900
OpenAlexW4321226546
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas7

This paper discusses the ways in which Ama Ata Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost (1965) can help us rethink Ghana’s annual ‘Year of Return’ celebrations. Drawing on hooks’ notion of ‘homeplace’, Ahmed’s theorization of ‘strange encounter,’ and Sharpe’s rumination on Black being ‘in the wake’ or afterlife of slavery, this paper reflects on how Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost can help us rethink the ‘Year of Return’ project in terms of dwelling. The paper argues that Aidoo’s play proffers a pedagogy of intercultural communication and a radical deconstruction of home and kinship. By noting Aidoo’s emphasis on intercultural communication, home, and dwelling, the paper demonstrates how the ‘Year of Return’ can be conceptually enriched and pragmatically organized in ways that seriously consider Aidoo’s ethic of dwelling. The paper is, therefore, a corrective to the overemphasis in the ‘Year of Return’ celebrations on trade, capital, and investment.

Deconstruction (building · Diaspora · Dilemma · Epistemology · Sociology · Symbolic capital · Anthropology · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies

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