Our Sister KillJoy – Ama Ata Aidoo

Our Sister Killjoy is the debut novel of Ghanaian author Ama Ata Aidoo, first published by Longman in 1977. It has been called a witty, experimental work whose main point is a stylish dismissal of characteristic attitudes of both the white world and the black middle class. It was described by one reviewer as a strikingly unusual and pertinent commentary on the African encounter with the West, on European soil…. Without being a conventional narrative or biography, it is a text that uses the framework of an account of a state-sponsored visit to Germany by a young Ghanaian woman (the ‘Sister’ of the title, usually addressed as ‘Sissie’) to analyse what Europe is and does to those Africans whom it ‘sponsors’ and educates.