Anowa

“A prophet with a locked mouth is neither a prophet nor a man”

The identities of the play’s characters are linked to the roles they fulfill. In this quote, the duty that men and prophets share is that of speaking and revealing truth. A quiet man without truths to reveal is shown not to be a man at all.

“I am going to help him do something with his life”

In the early stage of their courtship, Anowa is committed to helping Kofi achieve his goals. By all appearances, they will be a team. In hindsight, it is difficult to know exactly what she wanted to help him do, besides become a father.

“A kind God angered is a thousand times more evil than a mean God unknown”

Just as the formerly gentle and hopeful Anowa eventually shows herself to be spiteful and cruel, even a God of kindness can become angry and vindictive. For Anowa, it is more important to be known and reviled than to be unknown and exist in peace.

No man made a slave of his friend and came to much himself

Anowa resists Kofi’s suggestion to buy slaves. At this point, she is still Kofi’s friend. But as their inability to conceive persists, she comes to see herself as bound to him unjustly, in a sort of enslavement.

“People like her are not content to have life cheap. They always want it cheaper”

While she is not a materialist or an advocate of contention, Badua holds nothing but scorn for those whose actions make life more challenging than it has to be.

“One stops wearing a hat only when the head has fallen off”

Anowa views her desire to have a child and her need to work as innate, immutable parts of her identity. Some things change only with death. She cannot stop herself from feeling them and if Kofi wants to understand her, he must understand this. 

“I cannot be happy if I am going to stop working”

In the absence of a child, Anowa’s work becomes her purpose. Her ability to produce results through her labor justifies her existence. She is miserable with a life of idleness because idleness does not lead to creation.

“Peace creates forgetfulness”

The Old Man sees more value in a challenging, tumultuous  life. Peace is pleasant for many, but for those like Anowa, who fear stagnation and complacency, peace can be a thief of memory and a distorter of perspective.

“I know I could not have started without you, but after all, we all know that you are a woman and I am the man”

By referring to Anowa as “a woman” and to himself as “the man,” Kofi relegates Anowa’s identity to that of all women, while making his own status in their relationship clear. Her role is interchangeable with other women, but he would be superior to any woman who found herself in Anowa’s position.

“I wonder what a woman eats to produce a child such as Anowa?”

The Old Woman blames Badua for Anowa’s behavior. It is notable that she does not consider Badua’s child-rearing abilities as inadequate. Rather, she assumes that something went wrong even before Anowa was born, implying that Anowa was destined to be abnormal.

“What woman is she who thinks she knows better than her husband in all things?”

The Old Woman cannot entertain the possibility that a woman might know more than her husband. When a matriarchal figure takes such a viewpoint, it is hard to see how female empowerment can be achieved. The Old Woman’s views are similar to the bars of a jail cell that surrounds all women.

“Shut up child or your mouth will twist up one day with questions”

When, as a child, Anowa asks about the slaves being taken away, her grandmother tells her to shut up. Anowa was discouraged from asking questions about issues such as slavery. Even her grandmother encouraged her to simply accept things as they were and forget the possibility of change. There is little wonder that Anowa formed strong opinions about bonded labor.

“Is it too much to think that the heavens might show something to children of a latter day which was hidden from them of old?”

The Old Man believes in the evolution of knowledge. He understands that unless people understand that there is always more to learn, and more profound depths of understanding to achieve, ignorance and all of its attendant miseries will persist.

“Why didn’t someone teach me how to grow up to be a woman?”

Anowa realizes that because she was discouraged from asking questions as a child, her development as an adult is also stunted. Now, she is beginning to ask questions at an age when her peers have accepted the status quo. This makes her appear abnormal to them.

“The dumbest man is always better than a woman”

The Old Woman’s absolute use of “better” implies that men are better than women in every way. The statement borders on self-loathing. Nowhere in the play is the difficulty facing women in Ghanaian society more clear than in this stance.

“Anowa, did you have to destroy me too?”

Even though he chose to marry her, and even though his own impotence is at the root of their greatest challenge, Kofi solely blames Anowa for his ruined life. Because he sees himself as destroyed, he absolves himself of the responsibility to change his situation or redeem himself. This makes his suicide an act of cowardice as well as an act of desperation.

“Going away is one thing. Being sent away is another”

Despite her desire for freedom, Anowa is unwilling to be sent away without a fight. She would rather stay and risk the destruction of both of their lives than to be expelled by another’s decree.

“You must be a witch, child”

Because Anowa will not stop asking her grandmother questions, her grandmother tells Anowa that she must be a witch. Given the culture and time in which the play is set, the child would have been well-acquainted with the meaning of “witch.” Equating the presence of childish curiosity with the presence of dark magic is insidious. And yet, even this condemnation does not stop Anowa’s questions. 

“You are like a woman”

Despite Anowa serving as an example of an autonomous woman, she uses the word “woman” as an insult, suggesting that for a man to be compared to a woman is singularly degrading.

“That man who is afraid of women?”

Even the cleaning girl has an idea that Kofi harbors negative feelings towards women. Because the rumors about him have spread even to his help, once the cause of Kofi’s insecurity is revealed, it foreshadows the great lengths to which his disgrace has infiltrated the village.

“Poor children. I feel like picking them up and carrying them on my back”

This is another example of how badly Anowa needs a burden to shoulder. When she sees the children cleaning, her instinct is to lift them. 

“In order for her man to be a man, she must not think, she must not talk”

One way in which men are defined is through the respect, silence, and subservience shown to them by women. This is a terrible contrast to the early stages of courtship when Anowa wanted to help make Kofi make something of his life, because she did not intend to bring it about through unquestioning obedience.

“It is men who make men mad”

There is little acknowledgement of the possibility of mental illness or personal responsibility when it comes to the concept of “madness” in Anowa. One’s actions are nearly always assumed to be result of someone else’s influence. In this way, one can only be assumed to be as healthy or sick as the society in which one exists.