In pursuit of disobedient women : a memoir of love, rebellion, and family, far away
/ Dionne Searcey.
- First edition.
- New York : Ballantine Books , c2020
- 286 pages ; 24 cm.
Bridge too far -- Welcome to Dakar -- Va te faire foutre -- Call your husband -- The terrible list -- Rahila -- "I cannot watch this" -- Maiduguri-apolis -- Aisha -- Bad mom -- Walk of shame -- Amina -- Work husband -- The month of resentment -- There is no peace at this place -- Zalika -- Toyin -- Balaraba -- Bring back our girls -- "Halfway between a nightmare and a miracle -- Your turn.
In 2015, Dionne Searcey was covering the economy for The New York Times, living in Brooklyn with her husband and three young children. Saddled with the demands of a dual-career household and motherhood in an urban setting, her life was in a rut. She decided to pursue a job as the paper's West Africa bureau chief, landing with her family in Dakar, Senegal, where she found their lives turned upside down. They struggled to figure out how they fit into this new region, and their new family dynamic where she became the main breadwinner flying off to work as her husband stayed behind to manage the home front. In Pursuit of Disobedient Women follows Searcey's sometimes harrowing, sometimes rollicking experiences as she works to get Americans to pay attention to the region during the rise of Trump. She is gone from her family for sometimes weeks at a time, often risking her safety while covering stories like Boko Haram-conscripted teen girl suicide bombers or young women in small villages shaking up social norms by getting out of bad marriages. Ultimately, Searcey returns home to reconcile with skinned knees and school plays that happen without her and a begrudging husband thrown into the role of primary parent. Life, for Searcey, as with most of us, is a balancing act. She weaves a tapestry of women living at the crossroads of old-fashioned patriarchy and an increasingly globalized and connected world. The result is a deeply personal and highly compelling look into a modern-day marriage and a world most of us have barely considered.
9780399179853
Searcey, Dionne
New York times.
Journalists---United States----Biography Work and family---United States Reporters and reporting---United States Reporters and reporting---Africa Women political activists