The Road to Touba


Book Description

50 year old Charlotte Sandeman has at last achieved her lifelong ambition to work abroad in Africa, but will it bring her the happiness she craves.




The Report: Senegal 2011


Book Description




The Rough Guide to West Africa


Book Description

The Rough Guide to West Africa in epub format is the most comprehensive and user-friendly guide to one of the world's hardest - and most rewarding - regions for travel, covering the 15 visitable countries from Mauritania to Cameroon in fifty percent more detail than its only competitor. Each chapter of the Rough Guide includes thoroughly researched hotel and restaurant listings, sections on everything from food and language to media and sport, and thoughtful background on the environment, culture, history, politics and music. The introduction highlights the region's attractions and touches on its great range of cultural and scenic impressions. Sections on Arts and Crafts and Fruit and Food Plants offer fascinating information and useful advice. More than 160 accessible and accurate maps guide you from the urban jungle to beaches and mountains. And an extensive index references every place mentioned in the guide. Visit the author blog at http://theroughguidetowestafrica.blogspot.com for news, links and updates. Make the most of your time with The Rough Guide to West Africa




Senegal


Book Description

This new, thoroughly updated edition of Bradt's Senegal continues to offer far and away the greatest depth of coverage for this increasingly popular part of West Africa. With over 350 pages of detailed description and 40 maps, this remains the definitive source of information to a country that is often described as the whole of West Africa in microcosm. This new edition includes details of the rapidly changing transport situation, notably the opening of the new international airport and the first bridge to span the Gambia River. All regions of the country are covered, including detailed information on access to Senegal's national parks, with detailed maps, itineraries, and practical information on transport, accommodation and eating for each region. Senegal boasts a variety of landscapes and cultures that belie its compact size. Northern desert wilds give way to the rain-soaked Casamance, fringed by hundreds of kilometres of pristine beaches and the fantastically frenetic capital city, Dakar, surrounded by ocean and proudly perched at the westernmost point on the African continent. This smorgasbord of landscapes is all accessible within a day's travel, making Senegal the perfect choice for anyone looking to sink their teeth into West Africa, for the first time or the hundredth. Natural assets aside, Senegal is home to a world of man-made delectations: Dakar's nightclubs throb well into the morning hours and offer a rare chance to dance yourself silly with superstar musicians on their home turf. With one of Africa's most prolific arts scenes, Senegal attracts numerous visitors for its cultural attractions, and this book provides a thorough and accessible introduction to the music, art, film, and literature of this most creative of countries. Beyond the capital, Saint-Louis' charm is an enchanting throwback to the colonial glamour of the 19th century, and sleepy Île de Gorée is a haunting testament to colonial horror, as visitors peer through the door of no return, where thousands destined for the Americas glimpsed their homes for the final time. With all new first-hand research, Bradt's Senegal is the only guide ready to take you to all corners of this enchanting land.




The Homeland Is the Arena


Book Description

As Senegal prepares to celebrate fifty years of independence from French colonial rule, academic and policy circles are engaged in a vigorous debate about its experience in nation building. An important aspect of this debate is the impact of globalization on Senegal, particularly the massive labor migration that began directly after independence. From Tokyo to Melbourne, from Turin to Buenos Aires, from to Paris to New York, 300,000 Senegalese immigrants are simultaneously negotiating their integration into their host society and seriously impacting the development of their homeland. This book addresses the modes of organization of transnational societies in the globalized context, and specifically the role of religion in the experience of migrant communities in Western societies. Abundant literature is available on immigrants from Latin America and Asia, but very little on Africans, especially those from French speaking countries in the United States. Ousmane Kane offers a case study of the growing Senegalese community in New York City. By pulling together numerous aspects (religious, ethnic, occupational, gender, generational, socio-economic, and political) of the experience of the Senegalese migrant community into an integrated analysis, linking discussion of both the homeland and host community, this book breaks new ground in the debate about postcolonial Senegal, Muslim globalization and diaspora studies in the United States. A leading scholar of African Islam, Ousmane Kane has also conducted extensive research in North America, Europe and Africa, which allows him to provide an insightful historical ethnography of the Senegalese transnational experience.




Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils


Book Description

Born in a Jewish family, Maryam Kabeer was led to live in India and Nepal, and in monasteries in Europe, and then guided to embrace Islam at the hands of an ancient Sufi Master a few minutes away from the tomb of the Prophet Abraham. She then was guided to study intensively with Sufi Masters around the world. Her journey to the holy places and people of the earth, led her finally to Africa and the deep truth that all lives are totally interconnected and united with our own. This book is a significant and revealing social commentary, also dispelling many other myths and stereotypes such as the proposition, often fostered by the media, that women are inevitably oppressed in Islam. On the contrary, it is by entering into the heart of Islam that the author was liberated, elevated, empowered, and guided to realize the true purpose of her existence.







Touba and the Meaning of Night


Book Description

An Iranian woman forges her own path through life in this “stylishly original contribution to modern feminist literature” (Publishers Weekly). After her father’s death, fourteen-year-old Touba takes her family’s financial security into her own hands by proposing to a fifty-two-year-old relative. But, intimidated by her outspoken nature, Touba’s husband soon divorces her. When she marries again, it is to a prince with whom she experiences tenderness and physical passion and bears four children—but their relationship sours when he proves unfaithful. Touba is granted a divorce, and as her unconventional life continues, she becomes the matriarch of an ever-changing household of family members and refugees . . . Hailed as “one of the unsurpassed masterpieces of modern Persian literature” (Iranian.com), Touba and the Meaning of Night explores the ongoing tensions between rationalism and mysticism, tradition and modernity, male dominance and female will—all from a distinctly Iranian viewpoint. Defying both Western stereotypes of Iranian women and expectations of literary form, this beautiful novel reflects the unique voice of its author as well as an important tradition in Persian women’s writing. “Parsipur’s novel carries the reader on a mystical and emotional odyssey spanning eight decades of Iranian cultural, political, and religious history . . . rewarding and enlightening.” —Booklist “A sweeping chronicle of modern Iranian history and a study of the plight of twentieth-century Iranian women . . . [displaying] deft utilization of magic realism and Persian myths . . . rich and well-crafted.” —Library Journal




West Africa


Book Description

Discover the diverse attractions of West Africa and have the adventure of your lifetime with this thoroughly revised guide. Vibrant art and music, warm and friendly people, fascinating cultures and traditional religions, stunning natural features and intriguing architecture -- West Africa enables you to experience it all. -- over 150 detailed maps, including full-colour map of the region -- illustrated features on the region's people, arts, music and birds -- detailed historical overview, including the precolonial period -- practical notes on hiking and climbing throughout the region -- loads of accommodation and eating options for all budgets and tastes -- tips for safe and healthy travel, and up-to-date visa information -- expanded practical language guide




Dan Ge Performance


Book Description

Ge, formerly translated as "mask" or "masquerade," appears among the Dan people of Côte d'Ivoire as a dancing and musical embodiment of their social ideals and religious beliefs. In Dan Ge Performance, Daniel B. Reed sets out to discover what resides at the core of Ge. He finds that Ge is defined as part of a religious system, a form of entertainment, an industry, a political tool, an instrument of justice, and a form of resistance—and it can take on multiple roles simultaneously. He sees genu (pl.) dancing the latest dance steps, co-opting popular music, and acting in concert with Ivorian authorities to combat sorcery. Not only are the bounds of traditional performance stretched, but Ge performance becomes a strategy for helping the Dan to establish individual and community identity in a world that is becoming more religiously and ethnically diverse. Readers interested in all aspects of expressive culture in West Africa will find fascinating material in this rich and penetrating book.