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Riding the Demon: On the Road in West Africa | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter Chilson
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $8.61
You Save: $16.34 (65%)
Used (11) Collectible (1) from $8.61
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 1162492
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 195
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 0820320366
Dewey Decimal Number: 916.604329
EAN: 9780820320366
ASIN: 0820320366
Publication Date: January 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Very good condition hardback book, clean, appears unread, minor shelf wear to cover edges
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 More Colonial Nonsense July 31, 2000
5 out of 14 found this review helpful
What most reviewers of "Riding the Demon" miss is the way in which the author metaphorizes Africa for his own "literary" ends. As non-Africans have done now for centuries, Chilson translates "Africa" into a useful tool for his own soul-searching-and pontificating. While in some respects the book may open western eyes to the complex that is "Africa," ultimately Chilson bends "Africa" to his purposes and authorial desires.
 so, so... December 4, 1999
5 out of 16 found this review helpful
This book was informative, but it is limited to "on the road". You'll hear about the bush taxis and their drivers, but will visit only a small part of the country. This book could have used a good editor -- there's some repetition -- and a better map. The map in the front of the book doesn't list all the towns, villages, etc. that were visited and doesn't name the adjacent countries. I thought it was worth reading, but disappointing.
Riding a Taxi October 21, 1999
7 out of 21 found this review helpful
This book was very disappointing indeed. Niger is a large country, but the author only rode a few short stretches on the only real highway at the Southern border. Niger is endless sand dunes with tiny water holes that are tough to find. It has ghost towns and the salt oasis of Bilma. It has small oases where the people never saw a doctor and where children will die from infections when they step on an acacia thorn. It is a land of camel caravans where natives get lost and die in the desert. And where, in the mountains, live the blue men of the desert, the Tuaregs. On the desert sands, you can find fish skeletons. And in Agadez you see the world's oldest mosque and can shake hands with the sultan. And where was the author? Nowhere in sight of the real Niger.Forget it.
 A different kind of car culture August 25, 1999
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
It's incredible that Chilson manages to convey the entire culture of Niger (as well as incidental discussions of its history during French colonialism) through his reporting of his travels with several bush taxi drivers and how they manage their lives and the lives of their passengers on the road. Americans often think that we live in a car culture and have a love/hate relationship with our overdependency on cars. I challenge anyone to read this book and not come away thinking that traffic problems and reckless driving in our country are at best inconveniences compared to the literal hell in Niger. Here is a country where a highway patrol is manned by the military and is funded almost entirely through bribes extorted at road checks; where automobiles are literally pieced together with wreckage from the hundreds of near daily, fiery crashes that seem to line the Nigerien roads the way weeds and garbage line our highways; where talismans to ward off the road demons that lurk in the night are carried by everyone - not out of superstition - but in an earnest belief that one may not make it to the end of one's journey without them. Utterly fascinating, expertly and cleanly written, this book is an eye-opening reading experience.
Inspiring storytelling. July 29, 1999
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I desperatly needed some inspiration and Chilson and his book gave it to me. He weaves an interesting story through Niger meeting just the right mixture of people (intellectual, working class types and others) and describes the country to a penetrating affect.
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