Travels with Tooy : History, Memory, and the African American Imagination

by Price, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780226680583
• ISBN10: 0226680584
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-12-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Thirty-five years into his research among the descendants of rebel slaves living in the South American rain forest, anthropologist Richard Price encountered Tooy, a priest, philosopher, and healer living in a rough shantytown on the outskirts of Cayenne, French Guiana. Tooy is a time traveler who crosses boundaries between centuries, continents, the worlds of the living and the dead, and the visible and invisible. With an innovative blend of storytelling and scholarship,Travels with Tooyrecounts the mutually enlightening and mind-expanding journeys of these two intellectuals. Included on the itinerary for this hallucinatory expedition: forays into the eighteenth century to talk with slaves newly arrived from Africa; leaps into the midst of battles against colonial armies; close encounters with double agents and femme fatale forest spirits; and trips underwater to speak to the comely sea gods who control the world's money supply. This enchanting book draws on Price's long-term ethnographic and archival research, but above all on Tooy's teachings, songs, stories, and secret languages to explore how Africans in the Americas have created marvelous new worlds of the imagination.

Author Biography

Richard Price is the Duane A. and Virginia S. Dittman Professor of American Studies, Anthropology, and History at the College of William and Mary. He is the author or coauthor of more than twenty books, including the award-winning Alabi’s World.

Table of Contents

Prelude: 01142007	p. vii
Martinique: 01012000	p. 1
The Soldier's Charm: 0000800	p. 6
Sea Gods: 00000000	p. 9
Dungulali-Obia: 00000000	p. 15
The Beach at Cock's Crow: 04092000	p. 23
Night of the Cats: 06212000	p. 29
End of the Road: 06202000	p. 32
Tooy Possessed: 2000/2006	p. 41
Enstoolment: 06302001	p. 48
Mother Africa: 1690/1712	p. 51
New World Beginnings: 1712	p. 55
The Pink House: 05081986/06071997	p. 57
Gweyunga, the Rain Priest: 1690/1754	p. 60
Antama at War: 01201753	p. 63
The Soldier's Tale: 10051939	p. 66
Thunder Axes: 00000000	p. 80
Master of the House: 06222000	p. 82
Storm Clouds: 07082001	p. 91
Sex, Magic, and Murder: 06212001/1754	p. 94
Friction: 05242000/07062004	p. 100
Sangono mi toala!: 1760/1763	p. 107
The Namesake: 1848/1931	p. 112
Frenchwoman's Revenge: 1920/2005	p. 127
Tampaki: 1900/2005	p. 133
Palimpsests: 1604/1837/1841/1863/2001	p. 146
Antama the Obia-Man: 1771/1800	p. 150
Chronology: 1933/1970	p. 159
My First-Time Museum: 1690/2007	p. 172
The Trial: 02202002	p. 177
Grounds for Appeal?: 02202002/03012002	p. 192
The Prison: 02202002/06022003	p. 200
The Wetlands at Kaw: 07152004	p. 206
Tembai's Village: 1981/05282005	p. 216
Fleeing Trumps Standing: 04182005/05302005	p. 226
Politics: 04182005/05302005	p. 237
Tooy Teaching I-Mostly Luangu and Pumbu: 04182005/05302005	p. 245
Tooy Teaching II-Mostly Papa: 04182005/05302005	p. 248
Tooy Teaching III-Komanti, Wenti, and More: 04182005/05302005	p. 260
Dunuyangi Takes Over: 04182005/05302005	p. 271
Goodbyes: 05302005	p. 276
Knocking the Stone: 11142005/12142005	p. 278
Reflections from the Verandah: 01012007	p. 287
Coda: Esoteric Language	p. 309
Dramatis Personae	p. 391
Notes	p. 395
Bibliography	p. 439
Acknowledgments	p. 449
Illustration Credits	p. 451
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.