Strange Trade : The Story of Two Women Who Risked Everything in the International Drug Trade

Angel-ajani, Asale

ISBN 10: 1580053130 / ISBN 13: 9781580053136

Published by Seal Press, 2010

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 9642611-n

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Strange Trade : The Story of Two Women Who Risked Everything in the International Drug Trade
• Publisher: Seal Press
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1580053130
• ISBN 13: 9781580053136
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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.

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.