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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Amma Darko’s Women Between Two Worlds
| Panel |
38. African Migrations and Exiles in Germany - Representations and Creative Responses in Literature and Media
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| Paper ID | 565 |
| Author(s) |
Thielmann, Pia
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | In Germany, Amma Darko (born 1956) is the best-known Ghanaian author. Her six novels and two novelettes are published in German while two novels, Spinnweben from 1996, Verirrtes Herz from 2000, and one novelette, Im Überfluß from 1999 are not available in English. Two novels, Der verkaufte Traum from 1991 with its English original, Beyond the Horizon published in 1995 in the Heinemann Educational Series, and Spinnweben reflect Darko’s experiences and observations in Germany between 1981 and 1987 where she lived as a menial worker and asylum seeker. Both novels explore Ghanaian women and their sexual exploitation in Ghana and Germany.
My paper will concentrate on these two novels and focus on the representations of networks of women—family members, friends and colleagues. On the one hand, women partake in the enforcement of the roles of women as dutiful daughters, submissive wives and selfless mothers, on the other, they support and encourage female self-determination and self-respect. I will analyze how Darko succeeds in creating women in their respective social and political environment without inviting romantic or condescending notions that perpetuate stereotypes about “Africa” and “African women.”
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