Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move

by Nanjala Nyabola

Overview

What does it feel like to move through a world designed to limit and exclude you? What are the joys and pains of holidays for people of colour, when guidebooks are never written with them in mind? How are black lives today impacted by the othering legacy of colonial cultures and policies? What can travel tell us about our sense of self, of home, of belonging and identity? Why has the world order become hostile to human mobility, as old as humanity itself, when more people are on the move than ever?

Nanjala Nyabola is constantly exploring the world, working with migrants and confronting complex realities challenging common assumptions - both hers and others'. From Nepal to Botswana, Sicily to Haiti, New York to Nairobi, her sharp, humane essays ask tough questions and offer surprising, deeply shocking and sometimes funny answers. It is time we saw the world through her eyes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781787383821
Publisher:	Hurst
Publication date:	05/01/2021
Pages:	264
Sales rank:	381,243
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Nanjala Nyabola is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her work focuses on the intersection between technology and politics, as well as migration and human mobility. A constant traveller, at the time of writing she has visited over seventy countries across four continents.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Foreword xi

1 M'Pa Blan: I Am Not White 1

2 Travelling While Black 31

3 A Thousand Words 39

4 The End of Asylum 53

5 The Sea That Eats Our Children 61

6 Looking For Bessie 87

7 The African Is Not at Home 115

8 Periodic Offerings to the Visa Gods 135

9 Africa For Beginners 143

10 Ukabila 149

11 This Is For the Community 161

12 Small Acts of Resistance 175

13 Who Do You Say I Am? 185

14 Sagarmacha 193

15 Tero Buru of Collective Grief 201

16 Oh, The Places You'll Pee! 217

17 On Race 221

Further Reading 237

Editorial Reviews

"A rigorous meditation on what it means to move through the world as a Black, African woman. . . . This is a thought-provoking book." — The New York Times

"In the great tradition of Said, Orwell and Bessie Head, Nyabola's is a profound, gripping and beautiful book of undeniable genius on exile, migration and travel in our catastrophic times. It speaks to all those committed to truth and justice." — Cornel West, author of Race Matters and Professor of the Public Practice of Philosophy, Harvard University

"Through her experiences, [Nanjala Nyabola] brings to life the legacies of "othering" and colonialism that impact how Black people are perceived and treated around the world." — Metro

"Nyabola"s insightful essays deal with identity and the notion of home and belonging, in a world challenged by mobility and dislocation. This collection joins a venerable tradition of Black essay-writing, as it discovers for the socially aware traveller new routes and philosophies to explore." — Margaret Busby, editor of New Daughters of Africa

"What a book! Nyabola takes us on a travel odyssey and an inner quest, and with her we recognise what remains undone and how we see or unsee others. Lethal and restless, yet tender and vulnerable. Disturbing, delicious, defiant. A triumph." — Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, author of Dust and The Dragonfly Sea

"A unique, provocative and thoughtful collection of essays. Part autobiography and travelogue, but also a powerful reflection on migration, travel, identity, racism, literature, language, Pan-Africanism and the experiences of a young Kenyan woman travelling throughout the modern world." — Hakim Adi, Professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora, University of Chichester, and author of Pan-Africanism: A History

"At a time where the freedom of Black people to exist and move safely feels compromised, Nyabola"s collection of essays on travelling is an urgent intervention which powerfully marries cultural and political exploration to the intricacies of modern Black identity." — Jason Okundaye, writer and campaigner

"A valiant exploration of one of humanity"s most fundamental needs: the freedom to move. Drawing on a captivating life of her own, Nanjala Nyabola powerfully reminds us of the complexity of human identity. Above all, an incredibly moving book." — David Lammy MP, author of Tribes: How Our Need to Belong Can Make or Break Society

"Skilfully told . . . constantly challenging the reader to ask questions and see the world from varying perspectives."—African Arguments

"[Written with] passion, erudition, and fluidity ... Provocative and always willing to take on the conventional wisdom, Nyabola emerges with this book as an important observer." — Foreign Affairs

"A book you won't want to put down. [Nanjala Nyabola's] observations will make you glad she took you along with her."—North Dallas Gazette

"Nanjala Nyabola's book . . . open[s] new worlds to African women travellers like her who are reflecting on how their race and gender have shaped their experiences of dislocation, exile, belonging and not belonging."— The Elephant

"Nyabola's strength lies in an ability to join the dots and analyze what she sees before her, in fiercely articulate and erudite prose. ... [She] exhorts us to ... look at the bigger picture and rethink the status quo." — TLS

"Nanjala Nyabola captures [the] nuances of race as she documents her travels across seventy countries." — CHOICE

From the Publisher