Issa Boureima is a young, hip African street vendor who sells knock-off designer bags and hats in an open-air market on 125th street in Harlem. His goal is to become a "Jaguar"--a West African term for a keen entrepreneur able to spot trends and turn a profit in any marketplace. This dynamic world, largely invisible to mainstream culture, is the backdrop of this timely novel.
Faced with economic hardship in Africa, Issa has left his home in Niger and his new wife, Khadija, to seek his fortune in America. Devout Muslims, the couple has entered into a "modern" marriage: Khadija is permitted to run her own business, and Issa has agreed not to take additional wives. Issa quickly adapts to his new surroundings, however, and soon attracts several girlfriends. Aided by a network of immigrants, he easily slips through gaps in the "system" and extends his stay in America indefinitely. Following a circuit of African-American cultural festivals across America, he marvels at African-Americans' attitudes toward Africa, and wonders if he'll ever return to Niger. Meanwhile, Khadija also struggles to make it--to become a "Jaguar"--as she combats loneliness, hostile in-laws, and a traditional, male-dominated society. The eventual success of her dry goods shop and her growing affection for a helpful Arab merchant make her wonder if she'll ever join Issa in America.
Drawing on his own decades of experience among Africans both in Niger and in New York, Paul Stoller offers enormous insight into the complexities of contemporary Africa. Alive with detail, "Jaguar" is a story of triumph and disappointment, of dislocation and longing, and of life lived in a world that no longer recognizes boundaries.
Industry Reviews
An unusual premise - the life of a West African immigrant in Harlem - is the best thing about this unfortunately slack first novel by Stoller, an American professor of anthropology who's written scholarly studies of Niger and its environs (In Sorcery's Shadow: A Memoir of Apprenticeship Among the Songhay of Niger, 1987, etc.). Issa Boureima, an enterprising "Nigerien," has left his young wife Khadija at home with his own sprawling family - greedy layabouts inordinately proud that they're "direct descendants of Songhay kings." While Issa prospers as a "jaguar" (a West African term for an independent entrepreneur who moves into new territory and rapidly establishes himself), sending money and well-meant promises back to Niger, we observe (in juxtaposed parallel chapters) Khadija's growth from deferential helpmeet to strong, confident woman who breaks free from her in-laws' haughty importunings ("Before, a woman might sacrifice herself for her husband's family. But no longer") and likewise succeeds as a merchant. That's about all that happens, in a story overloaded with simplistic contrasts between (brash) American and (politely passive) African manners and morals. Stoller concentrates on both Issa's and Khadija's relations with sympathetic countrymen (and does, incidentally, offer an intriguing fragmentary portrayal of African street merchants in urban America), and varies his novel's essentially repetitive actions only with such undeveloped (if promising) scenes as Khadija's unhappy confrontation with Issa's posturing mother Hampsa (a character who we'd like to have known better), Issa's problems with INS regulations, and his trip to the Midwest (part of "the American bush") for Chicago's "Black Expo" sales convention. Along the way, Stoller frequently interrupts the story's progress to lever in background exposition, not always keeping verb tenses quite exact enough to avoid creating some reader confusion. Which is too bad, because Issa and Khadija are, in their differing ways, potentially engaging characters, and their tale ought to have gripped the reader much more than it does. (Kirkus Reviews)
