The Repercussion of ‘The Cultural Collision’Upon Members of the Same Race Reflected in Lorraine Hansberry's “A Raisin in the Sun” and Ama Ata Aidoo's “The Dilemma of a Ghost”

Abstract

This thesis discusses the cultural collision between African Americans and Africans as members of the same race. This collision is revealed to be a repercussion to the racial clash that previously occurred between blacks and whites leading to a wider collision inside the black race itself. The analysis of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (1959) and Ama Ata Aidoo's The Dilemma of a Ghost (1965) show how racial prejudice and discrimination have harshly affected the lives of African Americans and Africans. This negative effect is seen through the sense of alienation that leads the plays' characters to turn against themselves as well as their brothers of the same race. The thesis calls for a positive African American -African cultural dialogue which is free of the cultural and psychological complications caused by slavery and colonialism.

Key words: Culture - Black Nationalism - Lorraine Hansberry - Pan-Africanism - Ama Ata Aidoo - Ghana - Slavery - Colonialism - Racism - Assimilation.