Nanjala Nyabola

Nanjala Nyabola is a writer, political analyst and commentator based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her book Traveling While Black takes a global view on an issue every Black person is familiar with: the dangers of traveling as a Black person.

What is your definition of changemaker?
Telling stories that try to capture all the complexities of [being a Black person].

What is the biggest challenge you have experienced as a changemaker?
Racism. The same dynamics that make police officers stop Black young men in the streets of Europe or North America disproportionately or even that make police in African countries shoot Black people as criminals before proven otherwise, it’s racism. It’s a thread that goes back to this idea that we criminalize an entire race, and so the assumption is that you are a criminal until proven otherwise. Whereas White people get the assumption that they are good until proven otherwise. And that is what racism is. It’s a subjective belief that then becomes criminalized and bureaucratized.

How do you bring about change in your life, in your community, or in your field?
I wanted [my] book to be an invitation to other African writers […] to write and tell our stories and to understand that just because our stories don’t come in packages that resemble what Westerners think are important or interesting or captivating about us doesn’t mean that our stories are not interesting, important or captivating.

What is your hope for the next generation of changemakers?
I want us [Africans] to be better than Europe and the US. I want us to have a visa policy that reflects the aspiration of Pan-africanism, of welcoming, hospitality, of breaking down these boundaries and embracing free movement as a human right.

These answers were collected during an interview conducted by AudazMag, listen to the full interview and learn more about Nanjala Nyabola’s work.

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