I was an elephant salesman
Subtitle: adventures between Dakar, Paris, and Milan
By: Pap Khouma ; edited by Oreste Pivetta ; translated by Rebecca Hopkins with a foreword by Graziella Parati.
Contributors: Pivetta, Oreste, 1949-; Crockett-Hopkins, Rebecca.
Series: Global African voices
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Bloomington
Language: eng
Number of pages: 138
ISBN-13: 9780253355225; 9780253222329
Work titles: Io, venditore di elefanti.
Description: "Through the voice of a thinly veiled first-person narrator, Pap Khouma offers us a chilling, intimate, and often ironic glimpse into the life of an illegal immigrant. Khouma invents a life for himself as an itinerant trader of carved elephants, small ivories, and other "African" trinkets, struggling to maintain courage and dignity in the face of despair and humiliation. Constantly on the run from the authorities, he finds insight into the vicissitudes of law and politics, the constraints of citizenship, national borders, skin color, and the often paralyzing difficulties of obtaining basic human needs. His story reveals a contemporary Europe struggling to come to terms with its multiracial, multireligious, and multicultural identity"--Page 4 of cover
Table of contents: title: Selling; title: Illegal; title: Africa; title: Market in Abidjan; title: Dakar-Riccione; title: Street-smart... beach-smart; title: Italian money; title: Paolo il nero; title: Girls from Senegal; title: Police . . . just joking!; title: Germany via Paris; title: Month in Paris; title: Foreign legion; title: From Paris to Riccione; title: Car-house; title: Double Malaw; title: Chief Laman; title: Senegalese lunch; title: Dresser in Piacenza; title: End of ma; title: Milanese chronicles; title: Run on the beach; title: Dakar via Moscow; title: Life in Senegal; title: Tourist in Rome; title: To catch a thief; title: Lacoste; title: Fights in the metro; title: Changes; title: Political accusations; title: Children.