Riding the Demon: On the Road in West AfricaUniversity of Georgia Press, 15 mars 2015 - 216 pages In Niger, where access to rail and air travel requires overcoming many obstacles, roads are the nation's lifeline. For a year in the early 1990s, Peter Chilson traveled this desert country by automobile to experience West African road culture. He crisscrossed the same roads again and again with bush taxi driver Issoufou Garba in order to learn one driver's story inside and out. He hitchhiked, riding in cotton trucks, and traveled with other bush taxi drivers, truckers, road engineers, an anthropologist, Niger's only licensed woman commercial driver, and a customs officer. The road in Africa, says Chilson, is more than a direction or a path to take. Once you've booked passage and taken your seat, the road becomes the center of your life. Hurtling along at eighty miles an hour in a bush taxi equipped with bald tires, no windows, and sometimes no doors, travelers realize that they've surrendered everything. Chilson uses the road not to reinforce Africa's worn image of decay and corruption but to reveal how people endure political and economic chaos, poverty, and disease. The road has reflected the struggle for survival in Niger since the first automobile arrived there, and it remains a useful metaphor for the fight for stability and prosperity across Africa. |
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Page xiii
... never faced more serious threats than it does today — from south and north . Jihadist groups like Boko Haram and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are looming dangers . And Tuareg separatists , who have a nationalist agenda apart from ...
... never faced more serious threats than it does today — from south and north . Jihadist groups like Boko Haram and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb are looming dangers . And Tuareg separatists , who have a nationalist agenda apart from ...
Page xiv
... never been able to shake . I camped with friends at the foot of a crescent dune , a great ridge of sand with sloping arms that cradled our bivouac . We came in two Land Cruisers , a few Peace Corps volunteers and European aid workers ...
... never been able to shake . I camped with friends at the foot of a crescent dune , a great ridge of sand with sloping arms that cradled our bivouac . We came in two Land Cruisers , a few Peace Corps volunteers and European aid workers ...
Page xv
... never really seen . " The dune I sat on that New Year's Eve loomed over sandy terrain of scattered acacia trees and yellow grasses . To the north lay des- ert , and to the south , more dry savanna . Niger straddles the blurry line where ...
... never really seen . " The dune I sat on that New Year's Eve loomed over sandy terrain of scattered acacia trees and yellow grasses . To the north lay des- ert , and to the south , more dry savanna . Niger straddles the blurry line where ...
Page xvi
... never surrendered and the spirit of jihad never died . I hope this book , with its history of French conquest and stories of African mysticism and genius for survival — things I found in Is- soufou Garba , my bush taxi - driver - guide ...
... never surrendered and the spirit of jihad never died . I hope this book , with its history of French conquest and stories of African mysticism and genius for survival — things I found in Is- soufou Garba , my bush taxi - driver - guide ...
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Table des matières
1 | |
03 Chilson | 20 |
04 Chilson | 21 |
05Chilson | 39 |
06 Chilson | 57 |
07 Chilson | 60 |
08 Chilson | 79 |
09 Chilson | 99 |
11 Chilson | 120 |
12 Chilson | 138 |
13 Chilson | 140 |
14 Chilson | 159 |
15 Chilson | 161 |
16 Chilson | 181 |
17 Chilson | 187 |
18 Chilson | 193 |
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Abdou African road Agadez arms asked automobile Bodo Bonkano Boudot bush taxi bush taxi drivers Captain carburetor Central African Mission checkpoint cloth colonial demons door dozen engine face fear feet France French front gasoline gendarmes gris-gris hand Hausa head heard Hotel Central hundred Issoufou Garba Issoufou's Kaduna Klobb komasho Kountché laughed leaned looked Madaoua Mahamane Malam Shafi Mali marabouts Maradi Mazo mechanic miles military minibus morning motor park Moumouni Nationale never Niamey Niger River Nigeria night Oliver passengers Paul Voulet Peugeot Peugeot 504 police Route Sahara Sahel sand Sarraounia seat shook shouting smiled soldiers station wagon stood story street T-shirt talk Tanout Tessaoua things tion tires told took transport tree truck Tuareg vehicles village Voulet waited walked wanted watched West Africa wheel wind window woman women World Bank wreck Zinder وو