Tony D’Souza spent several years working for the Peace Corps in Ivory Coast, and Whiteman is a book based on his time there. Billed as a novel, it reads more like a collection of autobiographical short stories and is closely based on the author’s experience. The narrator, Jack Diaz, is a young American working for the fictional Potable Water Institute. Jack, prevented from establishing a water supply by lack of funding, instead teaches the villagers about Aids, which was D’Souza’s principal duty as a Peace Corps volunteer.

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