ISBN Travelling While Blackessays Inspired by a Life on the Move

The 2010s will be remembered worldwide for a renewed resistance to human mobility--an attitude rooted in racism and fear of the 'other'. Yet mobility is as old as humanity itself, and more people are on the move today than ever before. Nanjala Nyabola wants to understand why what was once a normal and even welcome part of the human experience has become a source of misguided fears and untold violence. What does the world look and feel like for black bodies on the move, when the world is a place where both blackness and mobility are increasingly punished and criminalised? What does travelling far from home tell us about our own identities? Nyabola's essays offer reflections drawn from more than a decade of both travelling and working on migration. Framed by her own experiences as a black African woman constantly on the move, 'Travelling While Black' journeys through a rich diversity of societies around the world to explore the collision between common assumptions and the complex realities of identity. Provocative, humanist and unapologetic, Nyabola challenges contemporary dogma and demands space for a return to basic human principles. It is time we saw the world through eyes like hers.