Anowa

A common lament throughout Anowa is that Anowa should have been a priestess. A priestess is described as a woman who is unattached to anything except her God. She is not expected to have children or obey a husband, and her allegiance to the laws of the Gods takes precedence over her civic and cultural duties. However, priestesses are also viewed as wild, unmanageable, witch-like, and as having too much in common with the Gods’ unsavory qualities. But the role of priestess in the play is a symbol of both freedom and a lack of man-made expectations. Because Anowa never became a priestess, the calling is also a motif for personal regret and the need to follow one’s instincts.

Near the end of Anowa, whenever Kofi looks at his limbs, funeral marches play in the background. A funeral dirge is always ominous, but in the play, the timing is significant. The music plays at the moment that the audience becomes aware that Kofi is unhappy with the sexual function of his body. Anowa accuses him of being like a woman, signifying that his body does not work in the way that a man’s body is supposed to.