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I Was an Elephant Salesman

I Was an Elephant Salesman Adventures Between Dakar, Paris, and Milan - Global African Voices

Paperback (18 Oct 2010)

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Publisher's Synopsis

A landmark bestseller in Italy, I Was an Elephant Salesman gives a name and a face to the thousands of anonymous African street vendors in cities across Europe. 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.

About the Publisher

Indiana University Press

Book information

ISBN: 9780253222329
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Imprint: Indiana University Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 853.914
DEWEY edition: 22
Language: English
Number of pages: 158
Weight: 238g
Height: 218mm
Width: 141mm
Spine width: 11mm