While there are no white characters in No Sweetness Here, colonialism exists as part of internalized mentalities, psychological and economic burdens left behind by Europeans. Whiteness is most clearly a psychological burden for the educated class, schooled in the English language and Western classics. It is an ironic reality of the postcolonial condition (as depicted also by other postcolonial writers such as Zimbabwean Tsitsi Dangarembga in her novel Nervous Conditions) that this educated class is simultaneously privileged and disadvantaged. It can abuse its privileges as the “big men” in Aidoo’s stories do by sexually using young women, or as corrupt politicians who exploit the nation. This educated class is disadvantaged in that it is often caught in conflicts between traditional ways and more modern values that challenge certain restrictive aspects of tradition. This type of dilemma faces educated women doubly, since they can be ostracized further from their communities for challenging the patriarchal status quo.

The Oral Tradition

We cannot assume that all literature should be written. One doesn’t have to be so patronizing about oral literature. . . . The art of the speaking voice can be brought back so easily. . . . We don’t always have to write for readers, we can write for listeners (Aidoo in Pieterse and Duerden 1972, 23–24).

Aidoo passionately believes in “oral narration as an artistic mode” (James 1990, 23). Although she belongs among African and postcolonial writers who speak their own mother tongues but who use the English language for their creative work—a legacy of British colonization—she believes that “the dynamism of orality” is what “Africa can give to the world” (James 1990, 23).4

While African literature in English can be dated to when most African nations became independent in the 1960s, the recentness of these English-language traditions must be distinguished from the much older cultural heritages, often oral, of the African continent. Many precolonial African cultures, predominantly oral, lost ancient oral literary traditions rendered invisible by racism and a Western belief in the superiority of written language and literature. Along with such erasure of language went devastating denials of culture and identity.

Unlike most women writers, who are comfortable with the novel form, Aidoo is happiest with drama, perhaps because the dramatic form with heard voices, dialogue, and audience participation links her most closely to orality:

Probably I am unhappiest with the novel simply because it is too many words. I think that once my uncertainties with poetry as a form and its accessibility have been resolved, what I mean, if I wasn’t so busy worrying about poetry not being accessible, I am very happy with poetry. But I am happiest of all with drama. Given some other circumstances I would have liked to write more plays. (James 1990, 22)