Eliza Anyangwe & Emmanuel Iduma: Outriders Africa – Deconstructing the Travelogue

As part of the Book Festival's Outriders programme exploring the shifting landscapes of contemporary Africa, writers born in two neighbouring countries interrogate what means to be the 'other' in pan-African society.

Originally from Cameroon and raised in several countries around the continent before settling in Europe, celebrated journalist Eliza Anyangwe travels regularly across Africa, yet often finds herself confronted by that infamous question: 'where are you from?'. Meanwhile, the language barriers faced by Lagos-born travel writer Emmanuel Iduma, author of the 2019 Ondaatje Prize longlisted A Stranger’s Pose, have seen him viewed suspiciously by fellow Africans as a 'mute observer'. 

Interrogating what travel writing represents for Africans on the margins, the two writers set off on an island-hopping journey from Madagascar to Comoros, finally ending up in Uganda before their trip was cut short as a result of COVID-19. Today, they share some of their stories from the journey.

With a special introduction by Kenyan feminist and writer and performer Anne Moraa, who reads from Black Woman, Everybody’s Healer by Hawa Y Mire. In partnership with pan-African writers collective Jalada Africa, the place to discover specially curated new writers and voices.

This is a pre-recorded audio-only event.