African Humanism and Realism in Yaa Asamoah Aning's Between Wars

This paper explores Yaa Asamoah Aning's Between Wars through the dual lenses of humanism and Realism focusing on the themes of love, culture, conflict, friendship, loyalty, and unity in African settings. Through a close textual analysis, the study investigates how these themes shape individual and communal experience and concurrently reflecting societal realities and cultural resilience. The findings reveal that love in its different forms function as unifying and transformation force, culture anchors identity through customs and traditions; conflict mirrors historical and political struggles; friendship and loyalty strengthen community bonds; and unity emerges as a necessary response to adversity. By integrating humanism, which emphasizes dignity and empathy, with realism, which foregrounds lived social conditions, the study demonstrates that Between Wars not only portrays African realities, but also offers tools for moral instruction, cultural preservation, and social transformation. The paper concludes that Aning's work resonates with broader current issues in African literature, reaffirming literature's power to foster empathy, illuminate complexities of African life, and inspire collective resilience.