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God's Bits of Wood (AWS African Writers Series)
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The Belly of the Atlantic
"This charming, vivid and poetic book captures the poignancy of immigrant life and all the unresolved pain of Africa's relationship with its former colonial powers."-Michela Wrong Salie lives in Paris. Back home on the Senegalese island of Niodior, her football-crazy brother Madick counts on her to get him to France, the promised land where foreign footballers become world famous. The story of Salie and Madick highlights the painful situation of those who emigrate. It is a moving account of one of the great tragedies of our time. .
Price: $6.93
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A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal
Drawing on the long history of Islamic arts in sub-Saharan Africa, A Saint in the City investigates in depth the vibrant and sophisticated arts of urban Senegal. Underscoring the interconnectedness of art and life, it insightfully penetrates the visual culture of the Mouride Way, a Sufi movement steeped in the mystical teachings of Sheikh Amadou Bamba (1853–1927). It focuses in particular on the ways in which sacred images "work" for people as powerful acts of devotion and prayer. The remarkable proliferation of arts in the city of Dakar, from bold street murals to virtuosic calligraphy and intricate, colorful glass paintings, attests to the transformative potency of images in Mouridism. This way of life, grounded in the dignity and sanctity of work as conveyed by the teachings of Amadou Bamba, is observed by over four million Senegalese--half the Muslim population in this small country--as well as by thousands more around the globe. A Saint in the City brings together a range of artists--regardless of background, training, rootedness in the "traditional" medium, or style--who share a belief in the Mouride Way. The book boldly transgresses the boundaries normally enforced between the local and the global, fine art and popular art, the gallery and the street, the historical and the contemporary..
Price: $30.21
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The Abandoned Baobab: The Autobiography of a Senegalese Woman (Caribbean and African Literature)
The subject of intense admiration--and not a little shock, when it was first published-- The Abandoned Baobab has consistently captivated readers ever since. The book has been translated into numerous languages and was chosen by QBR Black Book Review as one of Africa's 100 best books of the twentieth century. No African woman had ever been so frank, in an autobiography, or written so poignantly, about the intimate details of her life--a distinction that, more than two decades later, still holds true. Abandoned by her mother and sent to live with relatives in Dakar, the author tells of being educated in the French colonial school system, where she comes gradually to feel alienated from her family and Muslim upbringing, growing enamored with the West. Academic success gives her the opportunity to study in Belgium, which she looks upon as a "promised land." There she is objectified as an exotic creature, however, and she descends into promiscuity, alcohol and drug abuse, and, eventually, prostitution. (It was out of concern on her editor's part about her candor that the author used the pseudonym Ken Bugul, the Wolof phrase for "the person no one wants.") Her return to Senegal, which concludes the book, presents her with a past she cannot reenter, a painful but necessary realization as she begins to create a new life there. As Norman Rush wrote in the New York Times Book Review, "One comes away from The Abandoned Baobab reluctant to take leave of a brave, sympathetic, and resilient woman." Despite its unflinching look at our darkest impulses, and at the stark facts of being a colonized African, the book is ultimately inspirational, for it exposes us to a remarkable sensibility and a hard-won understanding of one's place in the world. CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French.
Price: $13.72
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States of Grace: Senegalese in Italy and the New European Immigration
Considers what this community tells us about immigration in Europe today. Leaving their depleted fields for better prospects, Senegalese immigrants have made their way to Italy in significant numbers. What this migration means, in the context of both the migratory traditions and conditions of Africa and the history and future of the European nation-state, is the subject of this timely and ambitious book. Focusing on Turin, the northern Italian point of entry for so many Senegalese, States of Grace chronicles the arrival and formation of a transnational African Islamic community in a largely Catholic Western European country, one that did not have immigrant legislation until 1991. With no colonial relation to Italy, the Senegalese represent the vanguard of population movements expanding outside of the arch of former colonial powers. Donald Martin Carter locates the Senegalese migration in the context of past African internal and international migration and of present crises in West African agriculture. He also shows how the Senegalese migration, constituting a “phenomenon” and catalyzing new immigration restrictions among European states, calls into question the European interstate system, the future of the nation-state, and the nature of its relationship with non-European states. Throughout Europe, protectionist immigration policies are often crafted in chauvinist and racist tones in which “migrants” is a euphemism for blacks, Arabs, and Asians. States of Grace uses Senegalese migration to demonstrate that racial conceptions are crucial to understanding the classifications of non-national “outside” and internal “other.” The book is a bracing encounter with the ever-increasing cultural and ethnic heterogeneity that is the new and pressing reality of European society. .
Price: $43.80
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Memoirs of the Maelstrom: A Senegalese Oral History of the First World War (Social History of Africa)
Between 1914 and 1918, the French army recruited over 140,000 West Africans who served as combatants on the Western Front. Wartime recruitment had profound implications for African as well as French society. Focusing on Senegal, Lunn provides a unique perspective for assessing the range of the war's impact on West Africans. Based on the testimony of 85 African witnesses or veterans of the First World War and extensive archival research, Lunn's book offers novel insights into the nature of the prewar colonial order, the conduct of colonial recruitment drives and their impact on Africans, the soldiers' service overseas, and how the experience altered many African soldiers' previous attitudes about themselves, their societies, and the French..
Price: $22.95
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Arts and Politics in Senegal 1960-1996
The purpose of this work is to analyze the dynamic interplay between politics and the arts in the formative stages of Senegal's cultural and political development under the leadership of President Leopold Sedar Senghor and President Abdou Diouf. Until his retirement at the end of 1980, Senghor, the poet-politician, pursued a vigorous cultural policy that used Negritude as a basis for its political and Ideological agenda. Under Diouf's guidance, Senegalese cultural policy has lacked conceptual clarity and a general consensus. On the other hand, the political reforms of the 1980s further entrenched multipartyism, resulting in unparalleled opportunities for freedom of expression. Despite a program of economic reform, the economy has stagnated and fiscal problems have persisted. Institutionalization and promotion of culture have, nevertheless, set the scene for some of the most significant political changes that have occurred in the evolution of Senegalese cultural politics since its independence in 1960. This study explores the dynamic relationship between politics and the arts in the planning and in the implementation of Senegalese cultural policy since 1960. It examines political reactions to the arts in Senegal, comparing and contrasting the cultural policies of President Leopold Sedar Senghor and President Abdou Diouf. Empirical evidence will support the thesis that in Senegal politics profoundly influenced the arts, having at the same time a significant impact on political and cultural affairs in that nation's post-independent era. The arts have the ability to animate politics, and this text analyzes how and why these two disparate channels came together in such a compelling way, especially in the first decade of Senegal's independence under the leadership of President Senghor. This unusual connection, i.e. between the arts and politics, sparked my interests for several reasons. First, the topic stems from my interdisciplinary approach to political science and from my personal experiences as a performing artist. In addition, a longstanding interest in French culture and society, enhanced by course work and travels, eventually led me to the study of politics in Francophone Africa. Inevitably, I became engrossed in Africa culture as it represents the natural expression of a people, and intrigued by how and to what extent black artists working in literature, painting, film, theater, dance and music have broadened the parameters of politics. Cultural politics is an important, though neglected, area of research in political science, and this study on Senegal, will uniquely explore further the connection between art, politics, and culture within a theoretical framework..
Price: $13.01
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