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. (Dec.)
