The Disparity between Cultures on Going Back Home in The Dilemma of a Ghost by Ama Ata Aidoo

Abstract

The paper discusses the collision which occurs when African Americans return to Africa. Such collision reveals the racial and cultural estrangement between African Americans and Africans as a result of slavery and colonialism. This idea is traced through Aidoo's The Dilemma of a Ghost (1965) which portrays an African American woman, Eulalie Rush who marries the Ghanaian Ato Yawson and agrees to return with him to Ghana. Rather than being welcomed by her African brothers, Eulalie finds herself racially and culturally rejected for being the descendant of slaves and an American respectively. Being in this odd situation, she starts to apply the same American racist perspective regarding Africans. Eulalie's dilemma therefore represents African Americans in general and the continuous collision between their African roots and the African American acquired perspectives.