FULL TEXT: CHANGES BY AMA ATA AIDOO, WITH COMPLETE AND CONCISE ANALYSIS TEXT.

 

Full Title: Changes: A love story

Author: Ama Atta Aidoo

Type of Work: Novel

Genre: Postcolonial novel; women’s literature, African literature

Time and Place: Written Late 20^th Century; Accra, Ghana

Date of First Publication: 1991

Publisher: The Feminist Press

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FULL ANALYSIS 

Esi the Protagonist 

The primary female character of the novel. Esi is a strong, well-educated, and independent woman who, at the start of the novel, lives with her husband, Oko, and their daughter, Ogyaanowa. Esi works at the Department of Urban Statistics and often brings her work home with her. After being raped by her husband, Esi decides to seek a divorce. She wants to live an independent life in which she prioritizes her career and is free from the traditional boundaries imposed by marriage. When she falls in love with Ali Kondey and agrees to become his second wife, she thinks she may have found the perfect arrangement. However, her marriage to Ali leaves her feeling terribly alone and isolated.

 

Esi Sekyi is the paradigm (example) of the strong, independent woman. In addition to having a job that pays more than her husband’s job, Esi owns the home in which she lives. She has a master’s degree and genuinely enjoys her career. Advancing within her profession is as much a priority for her as her family. Given the traditional role that women were generally expected to play within the family, Esi’s strong will and independent nature is unique. Esi comes to represent the emergence of a new feminine identity—one that can compete equally with men in terms of financial and personal security. At the same time that Esi may want the freedom to pursue her own career and desires, she still very much wants to love and be loved. What she sees in Ali is the potential to have both the freedom that she desires and the love that she needs. Although Esi tries very hard to live her life according to rational principles, she finds herself feeling devastated and lonely because of her relationship with Ali.

 

Ali Kondey

Esi’s second husband and the managing director of Linga HideAway Travel. Ali is a very handsome and well-educated man. The son of a traveling, polygamist father, Ali is the embodiment of a cosmopolitan man. He happily claims several different nationalities as his own, and he spends much of his life traveling from one part of the world to another. He grows up and marries his childhood friend and first love, Fusena. Drawn to Esi’s beauty and independence, he takes her as a second wife but quickly begins to spend less and less time with her. Ali is a self-absorbed man who tries to use his money to placate Esi and his wife. He is, above all, a traveler—a man who spends his life moving from one woman and destination to the next. Ali continues his multiple affairs throughout his marriage to Esi.

Ali Kondey is the male counterpart to Esi’s character. Attractive, intelligent, and well-educated, Ali is a worldly man. His job as the head of a travel agency suits his wandering personality, which constantly seeks not only new experiences, but new women as well. Ali has grown up in two distinct worlds: his father’s world and the Western world in which he was educated. Like his father, Ali believes he can possess as many women as he wants, on account of his charm and wealth. He takes Esi as a second wife, even though he knows that his first wife and love, Fusena, will never be able to fully accept it. He places limits on Fusena’s ambitions and prevents her from completing her degree. Even after marrying two women, Ali continues to acquire new mistresses, which causes both of his wives to feel abandoned. In a traditional, male-dominated society such as the one in which Ali’s father grew up, such behavior would have been accepted. But Ali lives in a different world. He knows that it may very well be impossible to maintain a marriage with two contemporary women, and yet he tries anyway, because he believes he can purchase whatever he wants.

 

Oko Sekyi

Esi’s first husband. Oko, despite his differences and difficulties with Esi, continues to love her very deeply. Raised in a traditional household, he tries to get Esi to adapt to a more standard form of marriage. He wants to have another child, and he wants to spend more time with his wife, who is constantly traveling or working. His desire for Esi to be a traditional wife eventually causes him to rape her, which leads to their divorce. He never fully accepts their divorce, even though he takes on a new young wife given to him by his mother. He becomes increasingly bitter toward Esi and her remarriage to Ali, an emotion that culminates in his violent confrontation with Esi at her house.

Oko Sekyi is at once a sympathetic and an abhorrent character in the novel. He loves his wife Esi dearly, not only for her beauty but also for her independence and intelligence. But at the same time, Oko resents her for exactly the same reasons. He is bothered by the comments made by his friends, who are beginning to regard him as less and less of a man because of his wife’s independence from him. Oko’s response to his friends’ ridicule is to rape his wife—an act that leads directly to Esi’s decision to divorce him, given that he does not even apologize. Like all of the characters in the novel, Oko is struggling to understand his relationships in a changing world. Following his divorce, Oko’s mother presents him with a gift: a young girl who can play the role of a compliant and obedient wife. Even though there may very well be some appeal to such a relationship, Oko continues to love his strong-willed ex-wife.

 

Ogyaanowa Sekyi

The daughter of Esi and Oko. As a young child, Ogyaanowa is caught in the middle of her parents’ frequent fights and eventual divorce. These experiences will clearly haunt her later in life. She is shuffled back and forth between her parents, but she is primarily raised by her father and her father’s mother. Although she loves her mother, she is clearly much more comfortable spending time at her grandmother’s house than in the empty home where her mother lives.

Opokuya Dakwa

Esi’s best friend. Opokuya is a dedicated wife and a loving mother. She works long hours as a nurse while also raising a family. She constantly fights with her husband over control of their car. During Esi’s crises, she always turns to Opokuya for love, support, and understanding. Compared to Esi, Opokuya is a much more traditional female figure. Both at work and at home, Opokuya is a constant source of support and compassion—a woman who frequently sacrifices her own needs for others’.

As Esi’s best friend, Opokuya Dakwa inhabits a space in between the nearly extreme independence that Esi represents and the traditional role expected of a woman in the household. Like Esi, Opokuya has her own career that is personally and financially rewarding. She is educated and clearly has the freedom to pursue her career. At the same time, Opokuya has a large family and a husband. She struggles to manage the demands of her job and family, and it is evident that the two demands take their toll on her emotional well-being. Nonetheless, Opokuya manages to fulfill all of the roles demanded of her by her life. She is at once a dedicated nurse and a dedicated mother and wife, but her life is not easy. She begins her days fighting with her husband. The fact that she rarely wins their morning dispute over the car is frustrating for Opokuya, but also clearly not enough of a problem for her to ever contemplate leaving her husband. In the end, Opokuya is able to resolve her morning disputes with her husband by obtaining her own car, thereby demonstrating her ability to be both an independent, modern woman, and a loving wife.

Kubi Dakwa

Opokuya’s husband. Kubi is a slightly arrogant and self-absorbed. He constantly controls the car, despite his wife’s legitimate need for it. He is friends with Oko, and as such, is hostile toward Esi following her divorce. At the end of the novel, he attempts to sleep with Esi, which again reveals his self-centered nature. Like Oko, Kubi is representative of a traditional patriarchal figure. His arrogance and concern only for himself causes him to slight his wife and family.

A relatively minor figure in the novel, Kubi Dakwa represents a middle ground between Ali and Oko. Although he still acts as and considers himself to be the head of the house, he is able to maintain a marriage to a woman as strong-willed as Opokuya. He is a selfish character, as evidenced by his reluctance to share the car with his wife and by his attempt to sleep with Esi. At the same time, however, Kubi also clearly accepts his wife’s right to disagree with him.

THEMES

Modern vs. Traditional

The characters of Changes live their lives split between two poles. They are modern, well-educated figures who nonetheless try and maintain a strong connection to their traditional cultural roots and values. Esi, the primary figure in the novel, is the best example of the tension between modern and traditional values. She is a remarkably independent woman dedicated to her career as a government official. As such, she has a hard time accepting the traditional roles defined by her culture for a woman. She places a higher value on her career and her own personal fulfillment than on playing the role of a proper wife. This tension leads directly to her divorce with her first husband, Oko, who wants her to be a traditional African wife.

At the same time, Esi is also still clearly attached to the values she learned while growing up. She allows herself to become a second wife to Ali, and she performs all of the necessary rituals that her culture dictates. Like Esi, Ali tries to bridge the gap between the world in which his elders were raised and his own modern lifestyle. The ensuing tension and unofficial divorce that surround his second marriage highlight the limited degree to which traditional values can be upheld in modern times.

The Ripple effect of Changes

The title of the novel, Changes: A Love Story, refers to the numerous personal and cultural transformations that lie at the heart of the narrative. The changes that occur throughout the course of the novel take place both at the character level and at the societal level. At the time of the novel, Ghana had recently achieved its political independence. The country is changing politically, economically, and culturally. Similarly, Esi achieves her own independence from her husband and marriage. Consequently, she becomes free to pursue her own ambitions without a family or a husband to restrict her. In a sense, she has transformed herself into a model of the modern woman: she is not only financially stable but also completely independent. Esi’s new independence is also symbolic of a larger change occurring within African societies. As women like Esi have an increasing number of educational and professional opportunities available to them, their roles both in the home and in society inevitably change. They are no longer simply wives and mothers who are dedicated to their own ambitions.

 

The Power of Education

All of the major characters in the novel are well-educated. Their education is not only the mark of their place in society but also an ironic and elusive symbol that signifies both change and stasis at the same time. The two primary lovers in the novel, Esi and Ali, are also the most highly educated. Esi holds a master’s degree, and Ali has studied in France and England. Upon hearing of Ali’s second marriage, the first question that his wife, Fusena, asks him is whether or not the woman has a university degree. This question highlights the degree to which education symbolizes progress, modernity, and independence for the women of the novel.

For Esi, her education enables her to have a well-paying job that can secure her independence. It is precisely that independence that attracts Ali to her, and it is the same independence that earns Esi the scorn of her first husband’s family. Esi’s education sets her apart from traditional African culture, making her feel alienated from her mother and grandmother, neither of whom can understand her attitudes towards marriage and work. Ali is as educated as Esi, and like her, he struggles to balance the two worlds in which he lives. When Ali proposes to his elders that he take a second wife, they are shocked. For them, Ali’s education has propelled him into a new world that does not allow for such actions.

Motifs

Travel

Throughout the novel, Ali and Esi are constantly traveling the continent and the globe. They are cosmopolitan figures, worldly in their knowledge of life and its variety of opportunities. Esi meets Ali while trying to finalize travel arrangements for work, while Ali has made a life out of traveling and assisting others in doing the same. The constant travel in Ali’s and Esi’s lives serves as a reminder of the degree to which each character is transient. Esi and Ali leave the country, their marriages, and, eventually, each other. From a young age, Ali has been a traveler like his merchant father. He continues this tradition in his profession and in his relationships. He travels from one woman to the next. He treats his wives much the same as he would treat any one of the destinations he frequently visits.

Proverbs

Brief statements that are written to resemble the tone and nature of African proverbs are inserted throughout the narrative. The proverbs serve several important rhetorical functions. They remind the reader of the African context in which the novel is written, and as such, serve as a bridge between African and Western literary traditions. The proverb is a traditional literary device used in African cultures to share wisdom and culture. By incorporating them into her novel, Aidoo is reasserting the value and function of African literary traditions in a genre—the fictional novel—which arose out of Western culture.

Friendship

Esi and Opokuya’s friendship is the most stable and equitable relationship in the novel. The two women treat each other as equals, and it is evident that they can speak freely and openly to each other in a way that they never do with either one of their husbands. For Esi, her friendship with Opokuya is also the most stable relationship that she has with anyone outside of her family. After leaving Oko and eventually Ali, Opokuya still remains. At the end of the novel, Opokuya’s husband begins to kiss Esi, and in that moment, Esi is reminded of her relationship with Opokuya. The thought is enough to draw her back into reality such that she moves away from Kubi.

Symbols

The Car

The tiny car that Esi uses to get to and from work each day is barely functional. It is so decrepit that upon seeing it, Ali says he will drive Esi home. The car serves as an initial attempt by Ali to enter Esi’s life. At the same time, Esi’s friend Opokuya engages in a daily struggle with her husband over who will control the car that day. In Opokuya’s marriage, the car becomes symbolic of the value placed on women’s work versus that of men. Despite the numerous needs of the house that Opokuya must tend to every day, her husband Kubi inevitably controls the car the majority of the time. When Ali finally buys Esi a car in order to apologize for his absence and placate Esi, he is inadvertently liberating Opokuya from having to depend on her husband.

The Wedding Band

When Ali proposes to Esi, he offers her a wedding band, a symbol of marriage perhaps original to Western culture that, when incorporated into Ali’s cultural tradition, is only offered to the first wife of a husband. Esi is taken aback by the wedding ring, as is her entire family. By bringing the wedding band into his marriage ceremony, Ali is not only showing his ability to accept and adapt to Western customs, but he is also demonstrating his attempt to incorporate those customs into an African context. The polygamous marriage upon which Ali is about to embark is contrary to the tradition of marriage symbolized by the wedding band that Ali offers Esi. Ali’s decision to take a second wife is both an embrace of traditional African marriages, and a rejection of the standards of Western marriage. As a result, the wedding band that Ali offers Esi becomes a symbolic bridge that unites the two traditions.

Professions

Each of the characters in the novel is at least partially defined by his or her career. Esi’s job with the Department of Urban Statistics highlights her rational personality, while Ali’s job at a travel agency reminds the reader of his tendency to move from one woman to the next. Contrary to Esi and Ali are Oko and Opokuya. Both characters work in professions that demand personal sacrifice—Oko as a teacher and Opokuya as a nurse. The fact that each character works in a field that reflects his or her personality demonstrates the substantial role that careers play in defining identity for the new generation.