In fact, much of the novel is a bitter critique of the educated elite, in particular the 'been-to's, and the prestige and admiration that is associated with the Western developed countries and those Africans who are privileged enough to emigrate there. In this sense she is typical of the character of the 'been-to' as a tool of social analysis albeit it in a reverse manner in that it is not so much her experience in the Western developed world which upon her return shapes her view of African society but rather her conscious identification as an African in Europe that shapes her world view.
Sissie in her travels and interactions with other people "orever carr Africa's problems on her shoulders"(p.118), and through her travels Europe she is able to point to many of the problems of her society and its relation to the Western developed world. The narrative, which is a mixture of prose and poetry, depicts the experiences and thoughts of Sissie, the black-eyed squint whose vision of the world is shaped by her constant awareness of the problems of Africa and in particular, neocolonialism and the corruption and hypocrisy of the African elite. In Our Sister Killjoy or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint, published in 1977 (although it was written almost a decade earlier), Aidoo portrays a young Ghanaian female student who travels from Ghana to Germany and England and then returns to Ghana. Ama Ata Aidoo: Our Sister Killjoy Megan Behrent '97
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