{"product_id":"9781558496828","title":"My African Horse Problem","description":"\u003cp\u003en February 2000, William Miles set off from Massachusetts for a Muslim village in West Africa with his ten-year-old son Samuel to settle an inheritance dispute over a horse. National Public Radio was so intrigued with this story that All Things Considered broadcast his pre-departure testament, as well as a follow-up commentary on what actually happened.My African Horse Problem recounts the intricacies of this unusual father-son expedition, a sometimes harrowing two-week trip that Samuel joined as \"true heir\" to the disputed stallion. It relates the circumstances leading up to the dispute and describes the intimacy of a relationship spanning a quarter century between William Miles and the custodians of his family horse -- Islamic village friends eking out a precarious existence along the remote sub-Saharan borderline between Nigeria and Niger. My African Horse Problem is a multi-layered narrative -- part memoir, part ethnography -- reaching back to Miles's days as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger in the 1970s and a Fulbright scholar in the 1980s. At a deeper level, the story juxtaposes the idealistic and sometimes irresponsible tendencies of a young university graduate with the parental concerns of a middle-aged, tenured professor. Miles wonders if he was justified in exposing Sam to some of the worst health risks on earth, mainly to restore tenuous ties with long-ago friends in the African bush. Was it reckless to make his son illegally cross international boundaries, in a quixotic quest for justice and family honor? My African Horse Problem is more than an adventurer's tale with a unique story line: it is a father-son travel rumination, leavened by Sam's journal entries that help his father see Africa anew through a child's fresh eyes. In this era of religious and racial tensions, it is also a reaffirmation -- within a black Muslim context -- of the basic human imperative of trust.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e University of Massachusetts Press\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Massachusetts Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47050372907248,"sku":"9781558496828","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781558496828_p0.jpg?v=1763757665","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781558496828","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}