The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
2012 by Alma Gottlieb and Philip Graham
All rights reserved. Published 2012.
Printed in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-30527-1 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-30528-8 (paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-30472-4 (e-book)
ISBN-10: 0-226-30527-9 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 0-226-30528-7 (paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-30472-8 (e-book)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gottlieb, Alma
Braided worlds / Alma Gottlieb and Philip Graham.
pages. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-30527-1 (cloth: alkaline paper)
ISBN -10: 0-226-30527-9 (cloth: alkaline paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-30528-8 (paperback: alkaline paper)
ISBN -10: 0-226-30528-7 (paperback: alkaline paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-30472-4 (e-book)
[etc.]
1. Beng (African people)Social life and customs. 2. Philosophy, Beng. 3. Beng (African people)Religion. 4. EthnologyFieldworkCte dIvoire. 5. Cte dIvoireSocial life and customs. 6. Cte dIvoireDescription and travel. I. Graham, Philip, 1951 II. Title.
DT545.45.B45G72 2012
305.89634dc23
2011050823
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
BRAIDED WORLDS
Alma Gottlieb & Philip Graham
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
Chicago and London
Alma Gottlieb is professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of The Restless Anthropologist, The Afterlife Is Where We Come From, and Under the Kapok Tree, all published by the University of Chicago Press. Philip Graham is professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and also teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. He is the author of seven books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Moon, Come to Earth, also published by the University of Chicago Press. Together they are the authors of Parallel Worlds: An Anthropologist and a Writer Encounter Africa.
Fourteen years after the events of their successful travel memoir, Parallel Worlds, Gottlieb and Graham headed back to Cote dIvoire, young son in tow, to conduct research and share the proceeds of their book. In alternating, harmonizing narratives, Braided Worlds recounts this return to Bengland, offering a tale filled with intelligence, humor, and humility. Gottlieb and Graham invite readers to travel with grace and insight through the external landscape of Africa and the internal geography of marriage, parenthood, and ethical living. I would accompany them anywhere. Michele Morano, author of Grammar Lessons: Translating a Life in Spain
More than a sequel to the much-celebrated Parallel Worldswhich entranced several generations of my studentsBraided Worlds takes readers deep into the heart of West Africa today, treating the fraught encounters and ethical dilemmas of anthropological fieldwork with remarkable empathy. A beautiful book that resists romance while remaining soulful, Braided Worlds is filled with seductive storytelling and sparkling prose. Charlie Piot, author of Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa
In this lively, engaging memoir, Gottlieb and Graham conjure the confluence of multiple experiences and worlds. Their deep connection with the Beng people over the years offers an authoritative and, even more important, a touchingly personal account of life in one West African culture. This book is a wonderful addition to our contemporary creative nonfiction literature, combining the best of immersion journalism, personal memoir, and academic study into a delightful and enchanting narrative. This literary journey reminds us, again and again, of the unbreakable bonds of our common humanity. Xu Xi, author of Habit of a Foreign Sky: A Novel
Braided Worlds is a gripping and instructive curl-up-in-a-chair book, appealing to anthropologists, Africanists, and to travelers and wannabe travelers who like to think and read across cultures and about fascinating encounters. The memoir weaves together the alternating voices of an anthropologist and a writer, both keen observers of character and context, and unforgettable local actors such as Almas friend Amenan, the mad-to-be-modern Matatu, and the authors young son, Nathaniel, with his Beng buddies. Through moving stories, such as that of Philips fathers African afterlife, we get a sense of worlds once parallel that have become progressively braided over time. Having successfully taught Parallel Worlds, I like Braided Worlds even more, and plan to use it in courses on fieldwork ethics, anthropological writing, and African ethnography. Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg, Carleton College
PRAISE FOR PARALLEL WORLDS
A beautiful memoir that will be savored with pleasure by seasoned fieldworkers, about-to-be fieldworkers, and anyone who is simply a fieldworker of the imagination.Sherry Ortner, author of New Jersey Dreaming: Capital, Culture, and the Class of 58
A remarkable look at a remote society [and] an engaging memoir that testifies to a loving partnership.... Compelling.James Idema, Chicago Tribune
A marvelously detailed and intriguing account of the hazards attending an attempt to embrace a radically different culture.... A unique collaborative achievement.Norman Rush, author of Mating
Parallel Worlds is that miraculous nonfiction book which reads so compellingly that one goes to bed wondering what will happen next and wakes up glad to find that there are still pages to go. It merges our own parallel lives as professionals who seek out ethnographies from duty and as readers who surrender to an engrossing book with joy.Kirin Narayan, Anthropology and Humanism
Powerful.... [The authors] lead the reader on an adventurous journey.... Offers Western readers a broader view of the state of affairs in Ivory Coast and of the continents vast complexities.Mwangi Ireri, Christian Science Monitor
An intelligent, adventurous young married couple, Gottlieb and Graham arrived in Bengland with open minds, both eager for Gottlieb to begin her first serious fieldwork as a novice anthropologist. Their beautifully written accounts of living with the Beng serve as a vivid testament to the fact that people of different cultures can find common ground.Ann Collette, Creative Nonfiction
As their lives converge and ultimately meld with those of the Beng people in common humanitychildbirth, celebration, sickness and deaththis book becomes strangely affirming of homo sapiens. In alternating passages, Ms. Gottlieb and Mr. Graham plot that convergence in precise, often arresting prose.Marvin Hunt, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This volume breaks new ground by its artful integration of two writers voices, offering a remarkable and engaging expression of parallel worlds.George Marcus, coeditor of Writing Culture
A book of unusual candor, Parallel Worlds offers a unique introduction to Africa.H. James Birx, Library Journal
ALSO BY THE AUTHORS
ALMA GOTTLIEB
The Restless Anthropologist: New Fieldsites, New Visions
(edited by Alma Gottlieb)
The Afterlife Is Where We Come From: The Culture of Infancy in West Africa
