The third story of the collection, "In the Cutting of a Drink," further demonstrates the commodification of women, this time showing the conflict between traditional rural values or morals and the newer urban capitalist values in which women must sell themselves as sexual beings to survive. The story is told in the first person by a narrator who is recounting to the people of his rural village his experience in the city of Accra where he went in search of his sister whom he had not seen in twelve years. His journey to Accra initially creates a sense of disorientation and incomprehension as the customs and values to which he is accustomed no longer apply. He appears naive in his interaction with his friend Duayaw who acts as his guide in the city. He is amazed particularly by the huge numbers of people as well as by the quantity of commodities he sees such as cars and lights and continuously wonders who pays for these goods. The consumerist economy and culture of the society conflicts with his sense of values and customs and demonstrates the clash between traditional societies and the increasing consumerism of the urban capitalist values in which money is the driving force.
The way in which capitalist values influence the role of women in this urban environment is particularly important in this story. At the beginning, Duayaw laughs at the narrator for naively believing that he will find his sister in the large city, and asks him, "Where can we find her if someone big has married her and she is now living in one of those big bungalows which are some ten miles from the city?" (p.32). Clearly this is one of the options, although a highly unlikely one, that may be offered to a young girl who goes to the city to seek her fortune and is reminiscent of the conversation in the previous story, pointing to the way in which a woman can sell herself as a slave to the 'big men' to survive. Another option, albeit a far less lucrative one and a far more common one, is the one chosen, by Mansa, the narrator's sister who becomes a prostitute at a nightclub in Accra. In both cases, it is clear that women are to be bought and sold in this capitalist economy and this type of sexual slavery is a normal accepted occurrence in the new urban environment in which everyone must sell what they can to survive. As Odamtten points out, prostitution is common in the contemporary urban areas of Ghana; it is a means of survival no different than any other. It is this fact that the narrator must learn for, his own traditional values and morals no longer apply in this setting where as Mansa says, "any kind of work is work." (p.36).
The role of women Changes in this urban setting where women are no longer valued as mothers and wives who have a productive and reproductive role in society. This is exemplified when the narrator asks Duayaw whether or not Mansa has any children and his response is "Children? . . . and he started laughing, a certain laugh..." (p.32). Women do have a certain degree of independence that they do not have in traditional rural societies as a result of these new roles. They eat with men, drink beer and are free to dance with strangers in bars. This independence, however, has a cost as it seems, in this story, their ability to survive financially is limited to their ability to sell their bodies, either by marrying a 'big man' (which is hardly a realistic option for the majority of women) or through prostitution. They must sell their sexuality as a commodity not for any productive role but simply for the pleasure of those who can afford to buy it. As the narrator learns, traditional values have no place in this economy where any services or goods can be sold and bought and no work is immoral if it allows one to survive. For women the central concern is opportunity, the opportunity to survive at all costs. At the end of the story, the narrator comes to a certain acceptance, albeit it a somewhat disillusioned and almost outraged one, that "Any kind of work is work...so do not weep. She will come home this Christmas . . . Any form of work is work...is work...is work!" (p.37).
[These materials have been adapted from an honors thesis written by Megan Behrent, Brown University, 1997]
