Where and when I enter -- Performing Africa -- pt. 1 Representations/performances. -- Music: Europe and Africa -- Performances -- pt. 2 Professional dreams. -- Curators of tradition -- Personalistic economy -- Interview encounters: the performance of profession -- pt. 3 Culture as commodity. -- Travel stories -- Tourists as pilgrims
Summary
The jali--a member of a hereditary group of Mandinka professional performers--is a charismatic but contradictory figure. He is at once the repository of his people's history, the voice of contemporary political authority, the inspiration for African American dreams of an African homeland, and the chief entertainment for the burgeoning transnational tourist industry. Numerous journalists, scholars, politicians, and culture aficionados have tried to pin him down. This book shows how the jali's talents at performance make him a genius at representation--the ideal figure to tell us about the "Africa" that the world imagines, which is always a thing of illusion, magic, and contradiction
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-235) and index
