• ISSUE NUMBER THRE ft FOUR • 1888 • life and marriage in Songhai and casts a spectral shadow on the narrative. The metaphorisation of marriage as a garden into which the hungry go to have their fill of golden apples is quite in- genious. The noun phrase 'golden apples' is a euphe- mism for sex (the Life Force). Much as Gimba tries to decapitate logo and make his style gender-neu- tral - a popular feminist practice that holds no attrac- tion for Zahrah -, his diction still appears phallocentric or sexist. He uses the lexical item 'male' for both sexes. A moralist, he eschews eroti- cism and a florid style and the the thus denies the reader pleasure of linguistic orgasm. The novel's title is instructive in this respect. Its symbolic code is highly poetic but re- pressed. Unlike Armah, Gimba shies away from call- ing things pertaining to sexual intercourse by their true names. Consider the only instance of the sexual act in the novel. Having sent Aalimah his client into a deep slumber with a barbitu- rate, An-Najmu the randy marabout 'went into com- merce with her' (206). No doubt, the novelist's banking profession has impacted his style. Clean, nonindulgent and nonprurient, it is the style of the puritan and is worthy of note in a licentious age. But it is marred by a few grammatical and typo- graphical errors. Golden Apple fits per- fectly into the phase of Afri- can literature in English ex- pression, which essentially is national in scope, in contrast with the literature of the sec- ond phase which is conti- nental and racial in orienta- tion and to which Osiris Ris- ing, an example par excel- lence of Negritude writing, belongs. Adeboya, a poet, teaches literature at Obafemi Awolowo University. Ile-Ife. Girl who would be king Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh Ama Ata Aidoo. THE GIRL WHO CAN AND OTHER STORIES, Sub- Saharan Publishers, Legon, Accra, 1997, 146pp. THE literary prowess of Ama Ata Aidoo is well known. For students of literature, the depth of her works, especially the derivation of English from the roots of Akan is very stimulating. She makes form and substance, intricate structures for otherwise ordinary common- place events. Among her works are Dilemma of a Ghost, Anowa, Changes, Our Sister Killjoy, No Sweetness Here, Someone Talking to Some- time, An Angry Letter in January and other Poems as well as Birds and Other Poems and The Eagle and Chickens and Other Stories for children. The versatility of her works cuts across the genre of literature, novel, drama and poetry, as well as short stories. The pieces in The Girl Who Can and Other Stories have appeared in different publica- tions at different times. They have been put together under one cover by Sub-sharan pub- lishers, based at Legon, Accra. It is good that the book is published locally which means that it can be available to Ghanaians. Through the stories, the author takes the reader through the whole social fabric. She provides new insights into some of the issues that confront us. Among them is the feeling of depression among women and the need to fight back in the face of cultural prac- tices that do not encourage women to assert themselves. Equally, the author uses the sto- ries to make political statements and push for women's rights. 'She-Who-Would-Be-King", which opens the book is a pro-feminist activist's assertion that whatever social inhibitions, there is hope for women to occupy political leadership. Thus in the story, the young girl emerges not just a president, but the president of the Confed- eration of African States (CAS) where men in the individual countries are still reluctant to accept that a woman is as capable as a man and are thus unwilling even to discuss the fact that a woman is the president - confirm- ing traditional notions, that women must not lead. In The Girl Who Can, which gives the col- lection its title, the author tries to look at tradition and the elements which see noth- ing wrong about the fact that the child must be seen but never heard. The child's duty TiT monly.t0 told. There is also the issue about the pioneer women pilots in the Ghana Air Force. Thus Heavy Movements' tries to capture the frus- trations women go through to survive. This is seen all over the place. At the cadet training, the ladies are not only derided but scorned. listen and do what she/he is Claariapa Basks 28 • ISSUE NUMBBt THRE & FOUR • 1888 • Then how come that Akuba's stepfather was not prepared to stay with the stepdaughter. Had it been him who had a child, would he have expected Akuba's mother to live with that Child? There is also the resilience of women, from Mampa who accept to bring up Akuba, as well as her mother whose determination to have her daughter educated could not be dimmed by an unfeeling husband. In the end, perseverance did it. Women must not be daunted by the ob- stacles. They can suc- ceed. In 'Some Global News: A Short Far-Voice the interna- Report,' tional dimension is brought into the picture and how human beings virtually behave the same way. In 'Lice', the author touches on a major so- cial problem, the ten- dency for men to aban- don their children to their wives and leave the upbringing of such children to the women. The frustrations and the thought of your man in Ama Ata Aidoo the arms of another woman, all these can affect the moral and psychology of women to think negatively. But as happened with Sissie, how can a mother kill herself and her daughter out of frustration. So, even after Sissie had poured petrol on the head of Baby and herself, she could not bring herself to see their death, hence the decision to put off the lighted match before it caused havoc. 'How should she go about it? Ah, she knew. She should light baby's head first. Then her own. She struck the match. Loud cough- ing came from beyond the door. Of course, it was Kofi who had coughed. There was also a sound of him turning restlessly in his sleep. He coughed again. Sissie heard it. The match box and the lighted stick fell from Sissie's hands. She sat on the edge of the bed. After a second of being perfectly still, she moved with the greatest effort she must have ever made in her whole life, and brought her foot on the glowing match. Then she threw her- self back on the bed and burst into tears'. 'Choosing - a Moral from the World of Work,' is another with philosophy, a great lesson for those with talent. We must al- ways have to make a decision and a choice. Boadu-Ayeboafoh writes for the literary columns of The Graphic, Accra Not yet the hour of signs Philip G. Altbach and Damtew Teferra Eds., KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION IN AFRICA: THE ROLE OF SCHOLARLY JOURNALS. Bellagio Publishing Network Massachusetts and Oxford. 1989. 137 PP. Philip G. Altbach and Damtew Teferra Eds.. PUBLISHING AND DEVELOPMENT: A BOOK OF READINGS. Bellagio Publishing Network; co-published with Obor. The International Book Institute, Inc.. Massachusetts and Ox- ford. 1989 190 pp. 'Bellagio Studies in Publish- ing, 9 -publishing' -foregrounds the 'Bellagio Studies in Pub- lishing, 8 -Knowledge' - which merely contextualises the Af- rican experience in publishing; hence, I have taken liberty with this more convenient sequence to draw my obser- vations. Publishing contains nine chapters including 'Cur- rent Trends in Book Publish- Sola OlorunyomiwHEN the au- t o m o b i le c a m e, techno-ad- dicts promptly proclaimed that the bicycle's hour of signs had arrived, but some- how after about a century the 'iron horse' continues to redefine its own imperatives. The allusion seems to un- derscore Bellagio's new ini- tiative which attempts to weigh the impact of the new information technology on the old letter press mode of publishing; and for those con- versant only with Bellagio's fellowships to "scholars and writers, this must be indeed a welcome development. Somehow though, 'the Slendsri Bilks Supplement 29