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Prologue: “Are You Disappointed?”
- How does the opening narrative of the author’s encounter with the man on the plane set up your expectations for this book?
- How did the author’s understanding of Guinea change over time between her first stay in the country and her later research and visits? How did her questions about Guinea also change?
Chapter 1. Introduction: Migration, Insecurity, and Belonging
- Why does the author open the chapter with the story of the Koundara road bandit? What does this case illustrate about life in the Fouta Djallon?
- What are some reasons why migration is a common practice in the Fouta Djallon? What does the author suggest that migration in the Fouta Djallon can help us understand about migration in general?
- What has insecurity in Guinea looked like over the years, and how have Guineans managed it?
- Why is Fulɓe identity complicated? How can someone consider themselves Fulɓe in some contexts, but not in others?
- How did mobility become a part of the author’s fieldwork? Would you expect moving around so much to make her fieldwork more effective or less so, and why?
Chapter 2. Conquering the Fouta Djallon: Historiographies of Insecurity
- Why did Fouta Djallon residents believe that Dadis’s visit to Labé was significant?
- How was the Fouta Djallon both particularly powerful and particularly vulnerable, according to many people who lived there?
- How did Fouta Djallon residents draw on both recent and distant history to interpret political events in 2009-2010?
- How and why did Fulɓe-Fouta believe they were targeted by the state? How does this belief relate to their contemporary political positions?
- How are the themes of betrayal and unity significant in Fulɓe-Fouta retellings of history?
Chapter 3. States of Migration: Living the Politics of Mobility
- How did the author go about finding new research contacts in Dakar after being obliged to relocate her research there? What were some of the challenges she faced in doing this, and which parts turned out to be easier than expected?
- The author argues that Fulɓe-Fouta migration to Dakar was political, even though people often discussed only its economic aspects. How was this the case? Can you think of other cases of migration around the world for which a similar argument could be made?
- How did Fulɓe-Fouta relate their own contemporary migration to the migrations of their parents, grandparents, and even their distant ancestors?
- What was leaving Guinea like during Sekou Touré’s presidency? What was it like to return to Guinea from abroad during this time?
- How did Fulɓe-Fouta migrants' nationality affect their interactions with Senegalese state officials?
- How did Guineans experience the Guinean state as one that didn’t “work,” and how did they discuss the Senegalese state as one that did? What do you think the “work” of a state should be?
Chapter 4. “Money Is the Key to the World”
- How was money the "key to the world" for Fulbe-Fouta migrants?
- What is "personhood"? How did Fulbe-Fouta both abroad and at home strive to become responsible social persons? How does this compare with views of what makes a proper person in the communities you belong to?
- What did young Fulɓe-Fouta men mean when they talked about getting a "départ"? Why was this so important? Why was the situation different for women?
- What kinds of work did Fulɓe-Fouta consider acceptable? What work was less desirable or even shameful? How were these ideas about work related to migration?
- How did Fulɓe-Fouta at home and abroad strive to avoid being seen as "useless"?
- How was work gendered among Fulɓe-Fouta migrants in Dakar? How was Fulɓe-Fouta migration gendered more broadly? How did this matter for the author’s fieldwork?
- In both Chapters 3 & 4, the author describes hearing often repeated the question, "Which place do you prefer, Guinea or Senegal?" What was the significance behind this question, and how did this significance vary depending on who was asking and who was answering it?
Chapter 5. “They Have Knowledge, but They Have No Manners”
- How does this chapter describe different ways of practicing Islam and being Muslim in the Fouta Djallon? How were these differences not as straightforward as they might at first have appeared?
- How is understanding the Fouta Djallon's theocratic and colonial-era history helpful for understanding religious differences in the region in the 21st century?
- How are different ways of practicing Islam in the Fouta Djallon related to migration and global connections?
- What role did behavior, or manners, play in local views of religious difference? In your view, how is behavior part of religion, and how is it different? Can the two be separated?
- How does the author describe her approach to doing ethnography in a context of religious difference and community disagreement? How might she have approached this situation otherwise, and how might her research have turned out in that case?
Chapter 6. The Promise of Unity
- What is the author's argument in this chapter about the unification of Fulɓe-Fouta behind the presidential candidate Cellou Dalein Diallo? What do you make of this argument?
- The author writes about instances of people declaring that after Cellou Dalein Diallo's victory, all Fulɓe all over the world would go home to the Fouta Djallon. How do you interpret these comments, given that many people also emphasized to the author how important migration was for Fulɓe-Fouta?
- How do the descriptions in this chapter of presidential campaign rallies, speeches, events, music, and publicity compare with presidential campaigns you have witnessed in the US or elsewhere in the world? What do you make of any differences or similarities?
- One interpretation of Guinea's 2010 presidential elections might be that people overwhe lmingly voted for the candidate from their own ethnic group, just as might be expected. But the author argues that this interpretation is too simplistic. How and why does she suggest that the situation was more complicated? What do you think?
- How did the author navigate the ethics of doing fieldwork in a politically charged situation? What might she have done differently, and how might that have affected her ethnography?
Chapter 7. Conclusions, Moving On, and Going Home
- How did the author's research experiences throughout the book make you think about the predictions of the man on the plane described in the Prologue?
- Shortly before the author returns to the United States at the end of her fieldwork period, a young man tells her, "You get to leave soon. The rest of us have to stay here in "What kinds of privilege did the author experience related to her own mobility, and what disadvantages did Guineans experience, as described in this book? How does the young man's comment reflect the inequities of mobility in the world today?
- How does the author conclude that migration abroad and belonging at home are both important for Fulɓe-Fouta? How do you think the book supports this conclusion?