I Give You Half the Road
eBook - PDF

I Give You Half the Road

  1. 318 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

I Give You Half the Road

About this book

In Ivory Coast, the farewell "I give you half the road" is an expression of hospitality, urging a departing guest to come back again. After their first stay in a welcoming rural community in 1981, Carol Spindel and her husband did just that. Over the course of decades, they built a house and returned frequently, deepening their relationships with neighbors.

Once considered the most stable country in West Africa, Ivory Coast was split by an armed rebellion in 2002 and endured a decade of instability and a violent conflict. Spindel provides an intimate glimpse into this turbulent period by weaving together the daily lives and paths of five neighbors. Their stories reveal Ivorians determined to reunite a divided country through reliance on mutual respect and obligation even while power-hungry politicians pursued xenophobic and anti-immigrant platforms for personal gain. Illuminating democracy as a fragile enterprise that must be continually invented and reinvented, I Give You Half the Road emphasizes the importance of connection, generosity, and forgiveness.

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Yes, you can access I Give You Half the Road by Carol Spindel in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Languages & Linguistics & African History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Contents
  2. List of Illustrations
  3. Facts about Ivory Coast
  4. Pronunciation and Spelling
  5. List of Characters
  6. Prologue
  7. The South-North Road
  8. Nawa: A Village Daughter
  9. Chékun: Chosen for School
  10. Lasungo: Champion Farmer
  11. Paying Attention
  12. Yaya: The Most Stubborn
  13. The End of an Era
  14. Ivoirité: Being Truly Ivorian
  15. The Gendarmes on the Road
  16. Yaya: A Northerner in the South
  17. Chékun: So This Is How It Is
  18. Santa Claus in Uniform
  19. Calamitous: The Election of 2000
  20. Powderkeg: 2002
  21. Lasungo: Protection
  22. Abou Joins the Rebels
  23. Nawa and the Old Healer
  24. Chékun in Abobo
  25. Yaya: Your Nationality Is Questionable
  26. North and South
  27. Return to Divided Ivory Coast
  28. Abou the Rebel: Demobilization
  29. Nawa’s Terrible Secret
  30. Election 2010: The First Round
  31. The Second Round
  32. The Women of Abobo
  33. The War in Abidjan
  34. Old Man
  35. The Mad Baker in the Bunker
  36. Abou the Ex-Rebel’s Last War
  37. Just a Word in Our Mouths
  38. Lasungo and the Yala-Yala Nurse
  39. Yaya and the Scrap Iron Business
  40. Abou the Ex-Rebel and the DDR
  41. Nawa on Market Day
  42. In One Ear and Out the Other
  43. Lasungo: Ballpoint Pen Divination
  44. Nawa: I Am Still Here Living My Life
  45. Lasungo: Two Kinds of Spirits
  46. Nawa: What He Is Saying Is True
  47. Assiata and Masita Once More
  48. Abou the Ex-Rebel in Peace
  49. Yaya: My House Is an Intersection
  50. Chékun: Back to the Kalikaha School
  51. Asking for the Road
  52. Epilogue
  53. Acknowledgments
  54. Glossary