Destabilizing the Colonial Legacy in Postcolonial Ghana: A Study of Ama Ata Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost

Though Ghana got its political independence from the British colonization in 1957, the lifestyle and life choices of the Ghanaians in the postcolonial era indicate that they are still colonized from within. In their daily life, they proceed from a deeply rooted belief in their inferiority compared to their former white colonizers and, thus, they still do not see any avenue for getting into the future but through the white culture. As a result, they send their sons to the West to complete their study, deny their national history with specific regard to the dark moments in it, other the weak and the powerless sections in society, and look upon woman from a sexist perspective. Ama Ata Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost (1965) comes at this critical period in the history of modern Ghana to revolutionize the consciousness of its readers/spectators by making them question their colonial mentality and practices. The researcher argues that the play is a revolutionary one that provides a powerful critique of the dominant colonial ideology in postcolonial Ghana through uncovering the colony within the Ghanaian people’s psyches. In place of the imperialist ideology that dominates all aspects of life, the play poses a postcolonial national ideology based on the resurrection of a shared history and a common culture that can reunite all Ghanaians under their umbrella and help them get rid of their colonialist legacy and rebuild their indigenous postcolonial identity.