'For Bessie Head' by Ama Ata Aidoo

16:17 - 03 December 2015

Professor Ama Ata Aidoo is an accomplished author, poet, playwright, academic, feminist, and beacon to writers the world over.

For Bessie Head by Ama Ata Aidoo

To begin withthere’s the small problem of address:

calling youby the only name some of usknew you by,

hailing you by titlesyou could not possiblyhave cared for,

referring you tostrange and cloudedorigins that eat intoour past our painlike prize-winning cassava tubers inabandoned harvest fields…

Some of us never ever met you.

And who would believethat but those who knowthe tragedies of our landwherenon-meetings,visions unopening and other suchabortions areevery day reality?

To continue aconfession of sorts,

‘Miss Head’ will just not do‘Bessie’ too familiarBessie Head,

your face swims into focusthrough soft clouds ofcigarette smoke and from behind themuch much harder barriers erected by somequite unbelievable20th. century philosophy,

saying more ofyour strengththan all the taleswould have us think.

For the moment,

we fear anddare not accept thatgiven how thingsare,

poetry almost becomesdirges andnot much more.

Butwe hold on to knowingourselves as daughters ofdarklight womenwho are so used to Life– giving itfeeding it –

Deathwas alwaysquite unwelcome;– taking them by surprise –an evil peevish bratto be flattered,cleanedoiledpomadedover-dressed and perfumed…

We fear to remember:fatigued as we are by so muchdeath and dying andthe need to bury andto mourn.

Bessie Head:such a fresh ancestress!

If you chanceon a rainy nightto visit,

if you chanceon a sunny dayto pass by,

look in to see– how well we do– how hard we fight– how loud we scream

against the plots– to kill our souls our bodies too– to take our land, and– feed us shit.

Comebenevolently,Dear Fresh Spirit,

that rejoiningThe Others,you can tell themnow more than ever,

do we needthe supportthe energy

to createrecreate andcelebrate…

nothing moreabsolutelynothing less.

Professor Ama Ata Aidoo is an internationally recognized literary and intellectual Ghanaian figure. She is as an accomplished author, poet, playwright, academic, feminist, and beacon to writers the world over. Aidoo is also a former Minister of Education in the Ghana government. Her novel 'Changes: a Love Story" won the coveted Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Africa) in 1992.