Black Ghosts
EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER 2025
A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023: TRAVEL
China today is a land of opportunity for African people blocked from commerce with most of Europe and Northern America. It is also an intersection of racism and prejudice.
Noo Saro-Wiwa goes in search of China's 'Black Ghosts', African economic migrants in the People's Republic. Living in clustered communities, they are key to the trade between the continents. Her fascinating encounters include a cardiac surgeon, a drug dealer, a visa overstayer and men married to Chinese women who speak English with Nigerian accents. This is a story of intersecting cultures told with candour and compassion, focusing on the shared humanity between the sojourner and their hosts.
Noo Saro-Wiwa was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and raised in England. She attended King's College London and Columbia University in New York. She is an author and journalist currently working for Conde Nast Traveller. Her first book, Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria, was published in 2012 and was named Sunday Times Travel Book of the Year, nominated by the Financial Times as one of the best travel books and included as one of the 10 Best Contemporary Books on Africa by the Guardian. It was also shortlisted for the Authors' Club Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award in 2013 and won the Albatros Travel Literature Prize in 2016.
@noosarowiwa | noosarowiwa.com