Our Sister Killjoy

“For the rest of her life, she was to regret this moment when she was made to notice differences in human colouring.”

Having grown up in Africa, Sissie has never been forced to see race as a driving force in how people understand each other. Part of her European education involves understanding and living within this system of racial categorization.

“For a child to grow up

To be a

Heaven-worthy individual,

He had

To have

Above all, a

Christian name.”

In Ghana, pre-colonial naming traditions were often replaced by Christian ones during the colonial period, conferring social value on Christian converts. The continuation of Christian naming traditions even after decolonization feeds into the European notion that Africa must adhere to European standards to be taken seriously, speaking to the fraught issue of Post-Colonial African Identity.

“A common heritage. A

Dubious bargain that left us

Plundered of

Our gold

Our tongue

Our life—while our

Dead fingers clutch

English—a

Doubtful weapon fashioned

Elsewhere to give might to a

Soul that is already

Fled.”

Sissie reflects on the shared history of all colonized people. Though she bristles at being mistaken for Indian, as if all people of color are interchangeable, she cannot deny their commonality. It is ironic that when Europeans confuse people of color, what they are subconsciously recognizing is this collective history of exploitation.

“At nine a showpiece

At eighteen a darling

What shall you be

At thirty?

A dog among the masters, the

Most masterly of the

Dogs.”

Sissie often evokes the symbolism of animals to talk about Africans who seek European approval (See: Symbols & Motifs). The comparison of African people to animals, particularly dogs, is common racist rhetoric that seeks to dehumanize Africans to justify exploitation. Sissie uses this comparison to a different end: to point out the hypocrisy of buying into European supremacy.

“She finished uncertainly, looking up to Sissie who did not have a child, as if for confirmation. A reassurance. That she was not speaking blasphemy.”

Marija lives with The Effects of Isolation and Alienation. She tries to connect with Sissie, who is also lonely and isolated, albeit for a different reason. By admitting that she finds motherhood alienating and sometimes wants a break from her son, Marija is being vulnerable and breaking a social taboo that she hopes will allow her to form a closer connection with Sissie.

“Champagne sipping

Ministers and commissioners

Sign away

Mineral and timber

Concessions, in exchange for

Yellow wheat which

The people can’t eat.”

Even after colonization has ended, African countries that gain independence still experience exploitation in the form of European resource extraction. This capitalist, neocolonial framework allows a few people to get rich while most citizens of the resource-rich country experience ongoing poverty that forces them to buy imported food that is not nutritionally viable.

“Once or so, at the beginning of their friendship, Sissie had thought, while they walked in the park, of what a delicious love affair she and Marija would have had if one of them had been a man.”

Sissie has romantic feelings for Marija, but she cannot fully admit her feelings even to herself because of the legacy of colonialism and anti-gay bias that she has always lived with. Many anti-gay attitudes in Africa can be traced back to the cultural impact of Christian missionaries during the colonial period.

“Why weep for them? In fact, stronger in her was the desire to ask somebody why the entire world has had to pay so much and is still paying so much for some folks’ unhappiness.”

Sissie connects The Effects of Isolation and Alienation to the project of colonialism. She finds that she cannot truly sympathize with Marija’s loneliness and her pain, because Marija is European and, therefore, indirectly responsible for the legacy of colonization.

“From knowledge gained since,

One wonders if their

Buxom wives had ever been

Guinea pigs to test

The pill and other

Drugs

As they say

Happens to

Miners’ wives to

Farmers’ wives in

Remote corners of

Banana republics and other

So-called-developing countries?”

This quote makes reference to the medical experimentation that many women of color have been subjected to under colonialism. A “banana republic” is a country that is kept both politically and economically unstable so that foreign countries (usually European or North American) can exploit its natural resources. The term was originally coined to refer to Central American countries like Honduras and Guatemala that were effectively puppets of the US, but it applies to many African countries as well.

“Sissie could not help thinking that it must be a pretty dangerous matter, being white. It made you awfully exposed, rendered you terribly vulnerable. Like being born without your skin or something.”

To Sissie, white skin seems vulnerable or weak rather than a marker of purity or cleanliness, as is often the rhetoric used in white supremacist ideology. By subverting the symbolism of white skin (See: Symbols & Motifs), Sissie is able to chip away at the notion that Black people are inherently inferior and point out the contradictions in ascribing value or morality to skin color.

“Otherwise the story is as old as empires. Oppressed multitudes from the provinces rush to the imperial seat because that is where they know all salvation comes from.”

Sissie gets to the heart of many Africans’ desire to go abroad to Europe: They are looking for the promise of freedom, salvation, and success that the colonial project promises can be found at the heart of the empire. Sissie rejects this framework; she is not interested in gaining imperial power, but instead hopes to construct a new Post-Colonial African Identity without European influence.

“Running very fast just to remain where they are.”

To Sissie, Africans who remain in Europe are lying to themselves and to their families, reflecting the Hypocrisy and Shame she regards as endemic in the African diaspora. Succeeding in Europe is actually extremely difficult for members of the African diaspora; Sissie sees a lot of people who must work incredibly hard just to remain shackled by neo-colonial power structures.

“‘We had chiefs like you,’ the Scot went on, ‘who fought one another and all, while the Invader marched in.’ Sissie thanked her, but also felt strongly that their kinship had better end right there.”

Sissie prickles at the implication that Scottish and Ghanaian people share a common experience of colonization. Scotland was colonized by England, but the histories of Scotland and Ghana could scarcely be more different. Indeed, Scottish people became part of the British Empire and actively participated in the colonization of Ghana and other African countries.

“My brother, I have been to a land where they treat animals like human beings and some human beings like animals because they are not

Dumb enough.”

Racist rhetoric often relies on comparing Black people to animals. When Sissie points out that some Europeans treat animals better than African people, she is underscoring the horror of a mindset that considers Black people to be less valuable than dogs and cats. This mindset is used to justify the exploitation and subjugation of colonized people.

“Those bantus

Are being

S-o-o-o well-looked-after

The others?

It’s a laugh!

Look at the mess they’ve made of

Independence given them.”

This quote references common attitudes of white people in Apartheid South Africa. Many held the patronizing belief that Black people in South Africa were segregated for their own good. They justified this belief by pointing to African countries that struggled after gaining independence, suggesting that Africans were like children who could not self-govern.

“Yet they wanted our labour for free. And when with the help of the gun and some of our own relatives they succeeded in sitting on us, they then said that indeed, we were made to be slaves because we are stronger, and we can work longer hours in the sun, and such other nonsenses.”

Hypocrisy and Shame are key to arguments that attempt to justify enslavement. Colonizers used white supremacy to instill shame in Black people and imply that they were inherently inferior or were only valuable for their ability to perform manual labor.

“That is why, above all, we have to have our secret language. We must create this language. It is high time we did. We are too old a people not to. We can. We must. So that we shall make love with words and not fear of being overheard.”

Sissie laments The Effects of Isolation and Alienation that come from only being able to speak to other African people in English. She longs for a future in which they can communicate without the confines of the language of colonization, in which she feels her thoughts and feelings are constantly surveilled.

“No, My Darling: it seems as if so much of the softness and meekness you and all the brothers expect of me and all the sisters is that which is really western.”

Sissie grapples with her Post-Colonial African Identity and the expectations African men place on her as a woman. They tell her that she does not act as an African woman should, but she rejects this view, arguing that they have actually bought into European gender norms that were imposed on Africa.

“Though I confess too that I am convinced these cold countries are no places for anyone to be by themselves. Man, chicken, or goat. There is a kind of loneliness overseas which is truly bad.”

While in Europe, Sissie deeply experiences The Effects of Isolation and Alienation. In her loneliness, she suggests that Europe is a bad place for any living being that is without community, including animals. She is subverting racist frameworks that compare Black people to animals, instead suggesting that it is Europe that is not good enough.

“Our beautiful land. Did I say our land? One wonders whether it is still ours. And how much longer it will continue to be…”

Sissie worries about what the future holds for independent nations in Africa. This concern is prominent in post-colonial theory; Sissie calls into question whether colonialism has really ended and what new kinds of exploitation Europe might impose on Africa in the name of “progress.”

“For that is also the tragedy—trying to explain their decisions not to go home. So many versions and each new one more pathetic and less convincing than the one before.”

Part of what makes Our Sister Killjoy such a radical text is Sissie’s continuous refusal to accept the arguments in favor of members of the African diaspora remaining in Europe. When this book was published, relatively few writers had created mainstream works that framed the African acceptance of European hegemony as a mindset driven by Hypocrisy and Shame.

“But isn’t there a danger that we might think we are solving a very old corporate problem by applying individual and piecemeal measures? So all of us who have been overseas build houses for our mothers. Then what next?”

Sissie does not have all of the answers when it comes to what the future of Africa will or should look like, but she knows that collective action is the root of meaningful change. Individual Africans achieving some measure of success in Europe is not enough; Sissie is interested in real change and the construction of a Post-Colonial African Identity on a scale that goes far beyond the personal.

“So this is it? We are only back to square one, yes? The superior monkey has got his private white audience for whom he performs his superior tricks. Proving our worth, eh? I was close to tears.”

Sissie’s frustrations reach a breaking point near the end of the love letter. All of the men’s arguments are coming from a place of Hypocrisy and Shame, indicating that they have accepted their place in the European system of race and are endlessly trying to prove that Black people are fully human. To Sissie, this is an unbearable compromise to make for the benefits of a life in Europe.