Exchange Is Not Robbery: More Stories of an African Bar Girl [Paperback]

John M. Chernoff (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0226103552 | ISBN-13: 978-0226103556 | Publication Date: January 15, 2005 | Edition: 1

While living in West Africa in the 1970s, John Chernoff recorded the stories of "Hawa," a spirited and brilliant but uneducated woman whose insistence on being respected and treated fairly propelled her, ironically, into a life of marginality and luck as an "ashawo," or bar girl. Rejecting traditional marriage options and cut off from family support, she is like many women in Africa who come to depend on the help they receive from one another, from boyfriends, and from the men they meet in bars and nightclubs. Refusing to see herself as a victim, Hawa embraces the freedom her lifestyle permits and seeks the broadest experience available to her.

In Exchange Is Not Robbery and its predecessor, Hustling Is Not Stealing, a chronicle of exploitation is transformed by verbal art into an ebullient comedy.  In Hustling Is Not Stealing, Hawa is a playful warrior struggling against circumstances in Ghana and Togo. In Exchange Is Not Robbery, Hawa returns to her native Burkina Faso, where she achieves greater control over her life but faces new difficulties. As a woman making sacrifices to live independently, Hawa sees her own situation become more complex as she confronts an atmosphere in Burkina Faso that is in some ways more challenging than the one she left behind, and the moral ambiguities of her life begin to intensify.

Combining elements of folklore and memoir, Hawa's stories portray the diverse social landscape of West Africa. Individually the anecdotes can be funny, shocking, or poignant; assembled together they offer a sweeping critical and satirical vision.

(20041011)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of Hustling Is Not Stealing will be eager for these further adventures of Hawa, the West African bar girl who told her stories to musicologist Chernoff in 1977 and 1979. Though it's better to start with the first volume, this sequel could stand alone if necessary. The earlier tales were set in Ghana and Togo. Now Hawa has migrated back to her father's country, Burkina Faso, where she's working in the nightclubs of Ouagadougou, while periodically visiting her ailing father's village. She details the complex economic arrangements of bar life—the commission system for hustling drinks, the various rates for sex with bar clients and the informal banking system for safeguarding a girl's daily take. Indeed, Hawa focuses almost exclusively on bottom-line financials—how to get money out of different sorts of men, the relative benefits of living as a mistress, wife or girlfriend, and the competition from cheap prostitutes. She even discusses the downside of her hustling life: with no husband, she's devalued in village life and has no income security. Still, Hawa prefers this to what she sees as the false security of marriage. Hawa sounds much older now, with little of the exuberance that made Hustling so compelling. Still, for Africanists, feminists and those who know the hard-won value of street knowledge, Hawa remains a strong, provocative teacher. Maps, glossary.
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Review

Fans of Hustling is Not Stealing will be eager for these further adventures of Hawa, the West African bar girl who told her stories to musicologist Chernoff in 1977 and 1979. . . . Hawa has migrated back to her father''s country, Burkina Faso, where she''s working in the nightclubs of Ouagadougou, while periodically visiting her ailing father''s village. She details the complex economic arrangements of bar life--the commission system for hustling drinks, the various rates for sex with bar clients and the informal banking system for safeguarding a girl''s daily take. Indeed, Hawa focuses almost exclusively on bottom-line financials--how to get money out of different sorts of men, the relative benefits of living as a mistress, wife or girlfriend, and the competition from cheap prostitutes. She even discusses the downside of her hustling life: with no husband, she''s devalued in village life and has no income security. Still Hawa prefers this to what she sees as the false security of marriage.

(Publishers Weekly 20050520)

"Exchange Is Not Robbery is the sequel to Hustling Is Not Stealing, an oral history about an illiterate young west African woman called ''Hawa''. John M. Chernoff, a musicologist, began taping Hawa''s rich, exuberant stories in 1977. He first met her in Accra, Ghana in 1971, where she made a precarious living as an ashawo woman--a bar girl or hustler working at the fringes of prostitution--having run away from an abusive marriage that she was sold into at the age of 16. The first book related her experiences hustling in Accra and her migration to Togo and then Burkina Faso. Exchange Is Not Robbery catches up with her in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso''s capital, not far from the village where her father is from. No longer young, she realises her ashawo lifestyle can''t go on forever. Her tone is darker and less playful than before, though flashes of her old self remain. ''So, you know, our people, they used to say that I''m naughty!'' she tells Chernoff in English, one of the 10 languages she speaks. ''They don''t know what kind of a person I am. Ha!''"--Financial Times

(Financial Times )

"John Chernoff''s books are important and passionate social documents that show how Hawa and many of her fellow citizens are capable, socially advanced and wry survivors; the challenge left to readers is to ask why these qualities in adversity are so necessary, and how things should be changed to enable ordinary Africans to enjoy the freedom they deserve."--Michael Peel, Times Literary Supplement
 
 

(Michael Peel Times Literary Supplement )

"This volume, like its predecessor, is a valuable resource; especially so given the lack of ethnography focusing on African youth. This alone makes Chernoff''s book a welcome contribution."

(Imam Hashim Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute )

"Exchange Is Not Robbery stands alone very successfully. Neverthelss, readers who enjoy it may well want to read Hustling Is Not Stealing too."

(Victoria B. Tashjian International Journal of African Historical Studies )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 424 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (January 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226103552
• ISBN-13: 978-0226103556
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,039,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Further Along the Journey, June 15, 2005

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Maxine Heller (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Exchange Is Not Robbery: More Stories of an African Bar Girl (Paperback)

John M. Chernoff's "Exchange Is Not Robbery" continues the adventures of Hawa, the West African bar girl introduced in "Hustling Is Not Stealing", which appeared several years ago. The two volumes are best read continuously, giving the reader the benefit of Chernoff's comprehensive and fascinating introduction to the first book. Hawa's vibrant personality and humor continue, but as she returns to Burkina Faso, the tone darkens somewhat. She moves between Ouagadougou and the village where her sick father lives, making observations about the sexual politics of being an "ashawo" and the economic stresses of the independent lifestyle she has chosen. Hilarious, but awful at the same time, are the stories of her encounters with French men (of whom she has a very low opinion!) and the lengths to which she must go just to survive. Awful but not hilarious at all is the oppressiveness of village life for women. Hawa never becomes bitter, but she expresses a greater sense of what her autonomy has cost her. This volume is also rich with folklore and magic, which blend seamlessly into the harshest realities. This book, like its predecessor, is unique and absolutely wonderful. I was sorry when it ended.