The Girl Who Can is a warm, quietly funny story by the Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo. It is told by Adjoa, a bright seven-year-old girl who lives in the village of Hasodzi in Ghana with her mother, Maami, and her grandmother, Nana.
From the day Adjoa was born, the two women she loves most have been discussing one thing: her legs. Nana thinks they are too thin and long. In her traditional view, a woman's body exists to marry and bear children, and such thin legs will never support the strong hips needed for child-bearing. Adjoa cannot see anything wrong with legs that carry her five kilometres to school every day and run faster than anyone else's.
Then Adjoa is chosen to run for her school at the district sports. She wins the cup for the best all-round junior athlete — and Nana, who had always called her legs useless, carries the gleaming cup home on her back, the way women carry babies. Nana now admits that thin legs can be useful for something besides child-bearing. Adjoa thinks: that is what I felt and thought all along.
The title says everything: Adjoa is "the girl who can" — who can learn, run and win, whatever others think her body is for.
Foundation first
Four ideas from earlier classes will help you read this story.
- First-person narrator. The story is told by Adjoa herself ("I"). Because she is only seven, we see the grown-up world through a child's eyes. A child notices things adults hide, and she does not always understand what they mean. The reader often understands more than Adjoa does. That gap is a main source of the story's humour.
- Oral storytelling. Many African stories were first told aloud, in the evening, to a listening group. The writer copies this style. The story opens as if Adjoa is talking to us: "They say I was born in Hasodzi."
- Gender roles. A gender role is what a society expects a boy or a girl to be and do. In Nana's village, a girl is expected to marry and bear children, and her body is judged by that task. The story questions this idea.
- Tradition and change. A tradition is a custom handed down from earlier generations. Traditions are not always wrong, but they can become a cage when they stop people from using their talents.
Where is Ghana? Ghana is a country in West Africa. Hasodzi, the village in the story, is in its Central Region. In the exam, write "a village in Ghana". The board has asked this directly (ICSE 2025 Q1(xv) and 2025 Improvement Q1(xiv)).
Worked examples
Example 1 (short answer, 2 marks). In two or three sentences, say what The Girl Who Can is about.
Model answer. Adjoa, a seven-year-old girl in a Ghanaian village, is told by her grandmother that her thin legs are useless because they cannot bear children. When Adjoa wins the cup for the best all-round junior athlete, Nana carries the cup home like a baby and admits that thin legs are good for other things.
Why this scores: the problem (1 mark) and the change of heart at the end (1 mark), in about 50 words.
Example 2 (MCQ, 1 mark). Where was Adjoa born? (a) Nigeria (b) Ghana (c) Ethiopia (d) Kenya.
Solution. (b) Ghana. ICSE 2025 Q1(xv). All four are African countries, so the distractors are tempting. The story places Adjoa in Hasodzi, a big village in the Central Region of Ghana.
Why this scores: an exact fact. The 2025 examiners' report lists the wrong recall of names and places as a common source of lost marks. Write only the letter.
Example 3 (MCQ with a twist, 1 mark). In the story, Adjoa lived in a village in (a) Ghana (b) France (c) Germany (d) Prussia.
Solution. (a). This is ICSE 2025 Improvement Q1(xiv). France and Prussia are the setting of The Last Lesson, another story in the same book. The board mixes stories in the distractors to catch students who have not kept the settings apart.
Why this scores: knowing the setting of each story separately.
Doubts cleared
Q. Is Adjoa a real girl? No. She is a made-up character. But the pressure on girls that the story describes is real in many societies.
Q. Why is the narrator so young? Because a seven-year-old sees clearly and says things simply. She has no reason to hide her feelings, so she tells us the truth that adults avoid.
Q. Is Nana the villain? No. She loves Adjoa, but she holds an old belief. The story is gentle with her, and she is the one who changes.
Q. What is the meaning of "Maami" and "Nana"? Maami is Adjoa's mother and Nana is her grandmother. Use the story's names in your answer, with the relationship in brackets the first time.
Mistakes to avoid
- Writing the narrator as "the author". The narrator is Adjoa, not Ama Ata Aidoo.
- Confusing the settings of the stories in the syllabus. Ghana belongs to this story only.
- Mixing up Maami and Nana. Maami is the mother who defends Adjoa; Nana is the grandmother who worries about her legs.
Check yourself
- Who tells the story?
- How old is Adjoa?
- What does the title tell us about her?
Answers: 1. Adjoa, in the first person. 2. Seven. 3. She is the girl who can: she can learn, run and win, whatever others think her body is for.