Description
Strange Trade tells the compelling stories of Mary, a Liberian drug courier with a college education, and Pauline, a Ugandan wife, mother, and drug cartel boss.
A leading expert on women and organized crime, Asale Angel-Ajani spent years interviewing these women in Italy's notorious Rebibbia Prison--and gained unprecedented access into the narcotics trade. Herself the daughter of a drug trafficker, Angel-Ajani brings a wrenching, deeply personal perspective to the account of these women's lives, and offers a nuanced understanding of the global context within which African women are entering the drug trade in ever-increasing numbers.
Strange Trade follows Pauline and Mary as they traverse three continents, survive wars, poverty, and shattered families, secure drug shipments, and commit murder. Angel-Ajani paints rich, intimate, and profoundly surprising portraits without glamorizing, sanitizing, or offering judgment. The result is an unvarnished journey into a world that, until now, has remained hidden; and a glimpse into the motives that led these women to risk--and ultimately lose--everything.
Author: Asale Angel-Ajani
Publisher: Seal Press (CA)
Published: 09/28/2010
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.08h x 5.48w x 0.95d
ISBN13: 9781580053136
ISBN10: 1580053130
BISAC Categories:
- True Crime | Organized Crime
- True Crime | Historical
- History | Women
About the Author
Asale Angel-Ajani earned her MA and her PhD in anthropology from Stanford University. She is the author of numerous articles and is the coeditor of the collection Engaged Observer. Angel-Ajani has traveled from West Africa to South America, witnessing the impact of drug trafficking and civil war on the lives of women. Before turning to writing full-time, she was a professor at New York University and the University of Texas at Austin. She is married and has two young children. This is her first book.