Mamud
Contributions in Black Studies
A Journal of African and Afro-American Studies
Volume 9 Special Double Issue: African American Double Consciousness 1-1-1992 Article 12
A Sociological Interpretation of Aminata Sow Fall 's The Beggars Strike
Mark Beeman
Northern Arizona University
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cibs Recommended Citation
Beeman, Mark (1992) "A Sociological Interpretation of Aminata Sow Fall 's The Beggars Strike," Contributions in Black Studies: Vol. 9, Article 12. Available at: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cibs/vol9/iss1/12
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Afro-American Studies at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Contributions in Black Studies by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact scholarworks@library.umass.edu.
Beeman: A Sociological Interpretation of Aminata Sow Fall 's The Beggars S
Mark Beeman
A SOCIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF AMINATA SOW FALL 'S THE BEGGARS ' STRIKE
MINATA Sow FALL 'S NOVEL, The Beggars ' Strike. is an account of a fictional strike in a West African Society. In this story state bureaucrats, who think beggars discourage tourism from the West, decide to rid the city of begging. The policy is implemented through police tactics of harassment, physical abuse, and imprisonment of beggars. This unbearable situation prompts the beggars to organize a strike in which they refuse to return to the city streets to receive donations. The novel portrays the beggars as an integral part ofthe society 's social structure, and their removal creates profound disruptions in people 's everyday lives. Fall 's novel constructs a paradigmatic framework to help the reader understand how begging fits into West African society.! This view is particularly informative for Western readers who may believe that begging is marginal or dysfunctional. In this paper I outline the two
A Journal of African and Afro-American Studies
Volume 9 Special Double Issue: African American Double Consciousness 1-1-1992 Article 12
A Sociological Interpretation of Aminata Sow Fall 's The Beggars Strike
Mark Beeman
Northern Arizona University
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cibs Recommended Citation
Beeman, Mark (1992) "A Sociological Interpretation of Aminata Sow Fall 's The Beggars Strike," Contributions in Black Studies: Vol. 9, Article 12. Available at: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cibs/vol9/iss1/12
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Afro-American Studies at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Contributions in Black Studies by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact scholarworks@library.umass.edu.
Beeman: A Sociological Interpretation of Aminata Sow Fall 's The Beggars S
Mark Beeman
A SOCIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF AMINATA SOW FALL 'S THE BEGGARS ' STRIKE
MINATA Sow FALL 'S NOVEL, The Beggars ' Strike. is an account of a fictional strike in a West African Society. In this story state bureaucrats, who think beggars discourage tourism from the West, decide to rid the city of begging. The policy is implemented through police tactics of harassment, physical abuse, and imprisonment of beggars. This unbearable situation prompts the beggars to organize a strike in which they refuse to return to the city streets to receive donations. The novel portrays the beggars as an integral part ofthe society 's social structure, and their removal creates profound disruptions in people 's everyday lives. Fall 's novel constructs a paradigmatic framework to help the reader understand how begging fits into West African society.! This view is particularly informative for Western readers who may believe that begging is marginal or dysfunctional. In this paper I outline the two
References: Produced by The Berkeley Electronic Press, 1992 13 NOTES 1 For a discussion of literary authors constructing paradigms to explain political and social behavior see Spegele (1971)