To recognize and use appropriate standards such as these is
indeed to challenge the edifice of the Eurocentric hierarchy
in letters. For instance, using these criteria allows us to place
high value on a book such as Our Sister Killjoy. Using a western
value system that deplores the political in serious literature as
"unaesthetic," some western critics might question the obvi-
ous "political" nature of the work as well as its concise narra-
tive style, thus enabling them to judge it as inferior to the "great
western masterpieces." The use of criteria 5 and 6, however,
reveals that such characteristics are positive, not negative. In-
deed, the brevity of Aidoo's book is considered an achieve-
ment, not a demerit, for the same reason that the use of prov-
erbs (criterion 1) is valued: proverbs allow the communication
of the maximum meaning through the minimum number of
words, evoking a great deal without necessitating what Afri-

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