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This book represents a close engagement with vulnerable populations in the city of Calabar in southeastern Nigeria. Following the traditions of Clifford Geertz' thick description, Elliot Eisner's arts-based research, and Laurel Richardson's poetic inquiry, Learning Calabar weaves prose and poetry in a hybrid form that evokes the everyday lives of gate keepers, grounds keepers, taxi drivers, cooks, and children with whom the author interacted during a Fulbright year. From the stance of a participant-observer, it traces her learning of history and the evolution of her understanding as she lived, along with her neighbors, in the chaos of governmental failure, extended power outages, and dysfunctional systems, aware that her privilege offered protections not afforded to her neighbors. This work opens doors to a long sweep of Nigerian history, while keeping a laser eye on people living now in the aftermath of that history, which is both culturally rich and politically torn. Written from the viewpoint of a learner, this book will be of interest to learners of West African history, cultural anthropology, ethnography, women's studies, cross cultural studies, and poetic inquiry. Its vibrant voice and poetic renderings also make it accessible and engaging for general audiences.
List of contents
My Finger Inquires of the Map-Where? - Learning Calabar I - The Calabar Acrostics - Learning Calabar II - The Ekorinim Suite - A Place Called Biafra - Everything Depends Upon - The Children of Ekorinim - Mary Okoi's Garden - Notes - Acknowledgments - Further Reading - Useful Websites - Catalog of the Acrostics - Index - Postscript.
About the author
Anne McCrary Sullivan was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Calabar in Nigeria. She has an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College, a PhD in English education from the University of Florida, and is Professor Emerita of Interdisciplinary Studies at National Louis University.
Report
"In Learning Calabar: Notes from a Poet's Year in Nigeria, Anne McCrary Sullivan's prose contains elements of the poetic and poems tell a good story. Her emphasis on being a learner in Calabar is crucial to understanding what it means for a white non-African to live in an African country. Above all, Sullivan communicates the respect and love she felt for the people of Calabar, particularly children and neighbors in the compound where she lived." -Ann Folwell Standard, Bodies in a Broken World: Women Novelists of Color and the Politics of Medicine
