The opening and closing narratives where the West is insidiously and pervasively present in terms of racism, economic exploitation, and psychological colonization provide a frame for No Sweetness Here. In the initial and concluding stories of the collection, Western-educated Africans returning home or living abroad are the focus. Through their confused eyes, the dilemmas are sharpened for the readers. Several major dilemmas appear in Aidoo’s stories that probe forth-rightly, and often with wit and humor, post-independence disillusionment and confusion of gender roles as they relate to race and class, the ambivalence of modernization as “progress,” and conflicts in gender and kinship roles in newly developed urban areas, particularly in women’s limited work options in cities. The dilemmas of the ascendancy of Western-educated “big men”—corrupt politicians who exploit the nation and young women—are also explored, as are women’s trials as mothers, prostitutes, and wives. For example, in “For Whom Things Did Not Change,” Zirigu faces post-independence disillusionment at the new black ruling class that did not consider him deserving of modern amenities like electricity and a good lavatory. The same story also probes the dilemmas of changing gender roles as they relate to race and class. Profound differences of class and education override racial commonality between the black, Western-educated Kobina and the black Zirigu as the older man addresses the younger as “My White Massa!” Zirigu expects Kobina to eat “white man chop,” as is the norm for white and black masters of Kobina’s class (16). While Zirigu is adept at cooking white peoples’ food—that is his job—he is horrified by Kobina’s request for local food. Cooking local food is woman’s work!

Differences between the two men are embodied in Aidoo’s uses of language in this story—Zirigu uses broken pidgin English when he speaks as servant to his master Kobina, but standard English when communicating as an equal (even as a superior in terms of his male privilege) when talking to his wife. Aidoo subtly criticizes Kobina’s well-intentioned, though naive, desire to effect overnight a radical transformation of class and education barriers and hierarchies between Zirigu and himself. Unfortunately, in reality, the social change from white masters to black masters leaves everything else intact. Class and education rather than race, then, govern social relations. Most new black masters expect the same servility from Zirigu that he had shown to the white colonial masters. This black bourgeois class has moved beyond the traditional value of showing respect for elders.