Synopses & Reviews
Yayaand#8217;s Story is a book about Yaya Harouna
, a Songhay trader originally from Niger who found a path to America. It is also a book about Paul Stollerand#151;its authorand#151;an American anthropologist who found his own path to Africa. Separated by ethnicity, language, profession, and culture, these two menand#8217;s lives couldnand#8217;t be more different. But when they were both threatened by a grave illnessand#151;cancerand#151;those differences evaporated, and the two were brought to profound existential convergence, a deep camaraderie in the face of the most harrowing of circumstances.
Yayaand#8217;s Story is that story.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Harouna and Stoller would meet in Harlem, at a bustling African market where Harouna built a life as an African art trader and Stoller was conducting research. Moving from Belayara in Niger to Silver Spring, Maryland, and from the Peace Corps to fieldwork to New York, Stoller recounts their separate lives and how the threat posed by cancer brought them a new, profound, and shared sense of meaning. Combining memoir, ethnography, and philosophy through a series of interconnected narratives, he tells a story of remarkable friendship and the quest for well-being. Itand#8217;s a story of difference and unity, of illness and health, a lyrical reflection on human resiliency and the shoulders we lean on. and#160; and#160;
Review
and#8220;Yayaand#8217;s Storyand#160;is not only highly original, it is emotionally engaging and profound. Stoller reveals the tensions between the yearning for meaningful relationships in Niger and the clinical care afforded by New York City. In so doing he demonstrates just how complex is the creation of well-being in the modern world. Above all we watch him learn what he shares with Yayaand#8212;how both the experience of cancer and an enduring friendship create new spaces where hope and deep meaning can emerge. This is a truly remarkable book by a most gifted storyteller.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Stoller is anthropologyand#8217;s master storyteller, and Yayaand#8217;s Story is his latest master tale of fieldwork, friendship, and the anthropologistand#8217;s quest for meaning. In smart, accessible prose, he introduces a fascinating transnational world from Niger to New York that is at once familiar and strange, moving and enlightening. Including Stollerand#8217;s own, multiple life stories grace the pages of this book that reveal the itch of restlessness, the power of sorcery, the loneliness of illness, and the elation of well-being in social life.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;For almost thirty years Stoller has been in the vanguard of a movement to make anthropology answerable to life as lived, to construe ethnographic praxis as a vision quest rather than simply an exercise in instrumental reason, and to make ethnography accessible, reflexive, and critical. Yayaand#8217;s Story exemplifies all these hallmarks of Stollerand#8217;s project and brings home to us the enduring value of engaging the lifeworlds of others with soul as well as intellect, as apprentices as well as interpreters, so that, at the end of the day, our work may attest to remarkable and#8216;existential convergencesand#8217; and and#8216;mutual understandingsand#8217; that partially eclipse radical cultural, circumstantial, and linguistic differences.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;Stollerandrsquo;sand#160;Yayaandrsquo;s Story: The Quest for Well-being in the Worldand#160;is a richly textured, ethnographic tale of the intertwining, andlsquo;existential convergencesandrsquo; of two menandrsquo;s lives. This is a story with the power to linger, a story of andlsquo;mutual understandings,andrsquo; intimate bonds, and the virtues of moral intelligence. . . .and#160;Writing against the scholarly grain, Stoller has produced a text that enchants. Over the course of a few pages the reader is brought to places and times that are in the same moment both wounded and spectacular, diverse and engaging. . . . Whether interested in a study of well-being, of transnational African traders, of spirit possession, of anthropology, or simply of the friendship of two very different men,and#160;Yayaandrsquo;s Storyand#160;is a book offering much to a wide readership. It is without doubt a book with a soul.andrdquo;
Synopsis
An astonishing story of how one man's knowledge of West African sorcery transformed his experience of cancer.
Synopsis
After more than fifty years as the model of perfect health, anthropologist Paul Stoller suddenly finds himself diagnosed with lymphoma. The only thing more transformative than his fear and dread of cancer is the place it ultimately takes himtwenty-five years back in time to his days as an apprentice to a West African sorcerer.
Stranger in the Village of the Sick follows Stoller down this unexpected path toward personal discovery, growth, and healing. Drawing upon an ancient esoteric tradition, he explores the symbiotic relationship between illness and health, the differences in how disease is culturally perceived, and the stunning capacity of the human spirit to convert adversity into strength and transform knowledge into wisdom.
Synopsis
After more than fifty years of good health, anthropologist Paul Stoller suddenly found himself diagnosed with lymphoma. The only thing more transformative than his fear and dread of cancer was the place it ultimately took him: twenty-five years back in time to his days as an apprentice to a West African sorcerer, Adamu Jenitongo.
Stranger in the Village of the Sick follows Stoller down this unexpected path toward personal discovery, growth, and healing. The stories here are about life in the village of the healthy and the village of the sick, and they highlight differences in how illness is culturally perceived. In America and the West, illness is war; we strive to eradicate it from our bodies and lives. In West Africa, however, illness is an ever-present companion, and sorcerers learn to master illnesses like cancer through a combination of acceptance, pragmatism, and patience.
Stoller provides a view into the ancient practices of sorcery, revealing that as an apprentice he learned to read divining shells, mix potions, and recite incantations. But it wasn't until he got cancer that he realized that sorcery embodied a more profound meaning, one that every person could use: "Sorcery is a body of knowledge and practice that enables one to see things clearly and to walk with confidence on the path of fear."
About the Author
Paul Stoller is professor of anthropology at West Chester University. He is the author of many books, most recently
Stranger in the Village of the Sick and
The Power of the Between, the latter published by the University of Chicago Press.and#160;
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue: The Story of Yayaand#8217;s Story
PART ONE: A LIFE STORY IN COMMERCE
1and#160;and#160;and#160; Belayara
2and#160;and#160;and#160; Three Brothers and the Work of Art
3and#160;and#160;and#160; New York City and Transnational Trade
PART TWO: A LIFE STORY IN ANTHROPOLOGY
4and#160;and#160;and#160; Silver Spring
5and#160;and#160;and#160; Stumbling into Anthropology in Niger
6and#160;and#160;and#160; New York City, Immigration, and the Warehouse
PART THREE: AWAKENINGS
7and#160;and#160;and#160; The Shadow of Sickness
8and#160;and#160;and#160; Three Years in the Shadows
9and#160;and#160;and#160; A Remarkable Convergence
Epilogue: The Quest for Well-Being in the World
Personae
Notes
References
Index