azi's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Great insight into the different kinds of migration and travel. I love that she owned and was honest about her privilege and how that will affect how she sees the world. I'll be thinking about this book for a while, and dreaming about one day getting invited to travel with her
geirertzgaard's review
5.0
The most important book to read this year. An eye operer and a mind breaker. I want to travel with Nanjala Nyabonga to really grap her world.
awaywiththefairies's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
I learned a lot from this book. It is a thesis in itself. The things I learned about Africa, about Europe, about migration and about the black experience while travelling will take me a week to process!
Wow.
Stunning, important, packed to the brim with knowledge ,wisdom and experience. I'm lost for words. Read it, you won't forget it.
Wow.
Stunning, important, packed to the brim with knowledge ,wisdom and experience. I'm lost for words. Read it, you won't forget it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Deportation, Grief, Racism, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Sexual assault, Slavery, and War
Minor: Genocide, War, Gun violence, Xenophobia, and Rape
remigves's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0
shonatiger's review
5.0
Easy enough to rate: 5/5, but how to explain?
It's a book written with great passion, and it carries you along. But as author explains at the beginning, she's coming from a place of privilege as she writes; and that comes across throughout the book, down to ways she sees, perhaps.
Then, I struggled to tell who the audience of the book was to be: Academics? Humanitarian workers? Westerners? Privileged Africans who travel? That kind of distracted me, especially when I came to dense passages full of jargon and high concepts. In that sense, not the most accessible book.
However, there's a lot to think about in here, and it's very much worth reading, not least because it's an important voice, and an important perspective: a black woman, about travel, race, politics, Africa, xenophobia, writing, and much else.
It's a book written with great passion, and it carries you along. But as author explains at the beginning, she's coming from a place of privilege as she writes; and that comes across throughout the book, down to ways she sees, perhaps.
Then, I struggled to tell who the audience of the book was to be: Academics? Humanitarian workers? Westerners? Privileged Africans who travel? That kind of distracted me, especially when I came to dense passages full of jargon and high concepts. In that sense, not the most accessible book.
However, there's a lot to think about in here, and it's very much worth reading, not least because it's an important voice, and an important perspective: a black woman, about travel, race, politics, Africa, xenophobia, writing, and much else.
audreysova's review
4.0
I had attended a virtual event where Nanjala spoke and I was so swept away be her insights that I was compelled to read her book. Admittedly, I thought that I was going to be getting a collection of essays and takeaways from the various places she traveled. And though she offers some commentary on place, I'm tempted to say the title here is a misnomer. She shares in her opening pages that she has been "a migrant, a tourist, and an expat, never a refugee or displaced person, but spending much of my career working with both." What follows then are stories that bring to life the politics and philosophy that she has developed through her work and experiences. It's an interesting read that would make for an even more interesting conversation and is sure to make you think.
lakerss12's review
4.0
First book of the year. Story about Bessie Head is what stuck with me the most throughout the year. Made me want to invest more in my career and clarified that I did in fact need to quit my job