Can the Subaltern Speak?
By Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
One of the key questions posed by postcolonial theorists such as Spivak (1988) is ‘Can the subaltern speak?’ According to Wikipedia
‘The term subaltern is used in postcolonial theory to refer to marginalized groups and the lower classes; this sense of the word was coined by Antonio Gramsci’.
One of my goals is to write the biography of my grand aunt. My main inspiration is because she has been denied the opportunity to write her own story, partly because she is female and was born of a particular era and culture. The other inspiration is because all I know of my grand aunt is through my grandfather so I will start by telling you a bit about my grandfather.
My grandfather is a rather tall, handsome and eighty six year old Ghanaian. He is still very active and healthy and spends his time writing and once a year visits his children and other relatives in the States, Canada and London. I don’t think Grandpa has realised that letter writing has gone out of fashion and that one should really be keeping in touch with your grandchildren via facebook or text messages. Nevertheless, it’s nice to get the occasional letter rather than bill through the post.
Grandpa has published one book Letters to a Son and a few years back wrote the manuscript for his autobiography which was a real revelation to me. Trust me there are some things you don’t want to imagine your grandfather doing such as…well I’ll leave that to your imagination.
The real revelation for me in my Grandfather’s autobiography was what I learnt not only about him but about Ghana and the various experiences he has had in his life. This is despite Grandpa having lived in our family home since I was a teenager. Isn’t it surprising how little you know sometimes about the people closest to you? His autobiography exposed me to the reality that I was not making full use of the wealth of experience and knowledge he had and led me to have many fascinating conversations with him.
One of the things that struck me even more profoundly at this time was the sharp disparity between Grandpa and his older sister M’am Free. Free is an abbreviation of the Twi word ‘Ofiri’ which means Albino. My grand aunt has some albino traits in the colour of her skin and the freckles on her face which led to her being called ‘M’am Free’ which literally means M’am Albino. It has just occurred to me right now that I have no idea what my grand aunt’s real name is. She has always just been called with great affection I have to add, M’am Free by all and sundry.
Now the huge disparity between the life that my Grand father and my Grand Aunt has led appears to stem from access to education and the resulting differences in lifestyle. My grandfather was educated from a young age and won a scholarship to attend university in the States, in his lifetime he has managed and started several successful businesses and made and lost huge sums of money, even at his grand old age of 86 he is looking into studying for a PhD.
My grand aunt on the other hand had no exposure to education, has lived in a small town most of her life, tilled a farm and sold her products in a local market. However the two siblings have always been close and the Akan traditional system which gives the brother responsibility for raising his sister’s children has ensured that my Grand Aunt’s children’s education was funded by my grandfather.
The Akan’s are the largest ethnic group in Ghana with a matrilineal system of inheritance which dictates that a male passes on his wealth and title’s onto his sister’s children. The only explanation I have been able to find for this is a rather misogynistic one, that as a male you always know that your sister’s children are your blood relatives whereas you can never be really sure that your own children are truly your’s.
In reading Grandpa’s autobiography which prompted further discussions with him on the subject I really wanted to find out why he had access to education and his sister did not. Why he has visited several countries in the world stayed in the best hotel and his sister only recently travelled outside Ghana for the very first time in over 90 years. What I discovered was that actually Grandpa was lucky to have been educated himself.
Grandpa’s dad, my great Grand father had seven wives, twenty sons and twelve daughters. It was his paternal policy that each wife would have her first son educated. It was out of the question for any of the daughter’s to be educated. Grandpa was lucky to be educated because he was the third son of his mother but his eldest brother who had been educated decided to fund his younger brother’s tuition.
For my grand aunt there was no such offer which led me to consider again that question that is often posed in post colonial theory ‘Who speaks for the subaltern?’
In my own life I know the value that I have gained from my passion for books and the inspiration and life changing consequences that very often a book I have read has had on my life. What about the person who has had no opportunity to read a book because she has been denied access to education? What about the person who is unable to write her life story as a lesson to others? Who writes the story of the subaltern?
Nana Sekyiamah 2007. If you would like to comment on this article please email me on
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