SOURCE: Aidoo, Ama Ata, and Anuradha Dingwaney Needham. “An Interview with Ama Ata Aidoo.” Massachusetts Review 36, no. 1 (spring 1995): 123-33.

In the following interview, originally conducted on January 29, 1992, Aidoo discusses her feminist perspective, African nationalism, and the portrayal of African immigrants in her work.

Ama Ata Aidoo has occupied, and continues to occupy, many roles: former Minister of Education for Ghana, University Teacher, Critic, Writer of poetry, plays, novels and short stories. The brutal legacy of European colonialism in Africa, a gender politics that marginalizes women and locks them into unacceptable traditional roles, the persistence of neo-colonialism evident especially in the economic control of Africa by the very powers that colonized Africa are some of the concerns that dominate her work. They reappear in this interview, which was conducted at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, on January 29, 1992. Aidoo spent 1991-1992 at Hamilton College as a Visiting Professor in the...