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Bakwa 09: Taxi Drivers Who Drive Us Nowhere and other Travel Stories
In our first-ever print and entirely nonfiction issue, we explore what it means to travel as an African. Herein are stories about passport privilege and air and road trips to destinations diverse and peculiar—from Douala, Lagos, Lisbon, through Berlin, Sylt, Maputo to Kousseri. A journey down memory lane with the inglorious history of an airline, and a cab driver’s unheralded analysis of Captain Marvel.
Bakwa 09 includes pieces from Florian Ngimbis, Anne-Marie Befoune, Yovanka Paquete Perdigao, Sada Malumfashi, Nkiacha Atemnkeng, Munukayumbwa ‘Mimi’ Mwiya, Howard M-B Maximus, Kay Ugwuede and Raoul Djimeli. It also features an online-only excerpt of the novel Whites Can Dance Too by Kalaf Epalanga.
Bakwa 09 includes pieces from Florian Ngimbis, Anne-Marie Befoune, Yovanka Paquete Perdigao, Sada Malumfashi, Nkiacha Atemnkeng, Munukayumbwa ‘Mimi’ Mwiya, Howard M-B Maximus, Kay Ugwuede and Raoul Djimeli. It also features an online-only excerpt of the novel Whites Can Dance Too by Kalaf Epalanga.
118 pages, Paperback
Published October 28, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 24, 2019
"Taxi Drivers Who Drive Us Nowhere and other Travel Stories" is the ninth issue of Cameroonian based literary magazine Bakwa Magazine but the first one published in print. This issue focusses solely on non-fiction and specifically travel writing. The overarching question connecting the nine essay - six in English and three in French is: What does it mean to travel as an African?
In the title-giving story, "Taxi Drivers Who Drive Us Nowhere", Howard Meh-Buh Maximus writes about his encounters with different taxi drivers in Lagos and their stories. Sada Malumfashi writes in "Prepare for Whiteness" about his travel to a writing residency on Sylt, Germany. One of my favourite pieces was Yovanka Paquete Perdigao's "A Family History in a Passport" in which she takes her relationship with her passport(s) and dives into her family as well as (post)colonial history of Portugal and Bissau-Guinea. This essay is absolutely beautifully written and asks questions of belonging, oppression and privileges such as differing access to visas (or not even needing visas) depending on what kind of passport one has.
Kay Ugwuede's essay "The Africa We Get" (a play on the African Union slogan "The Africa We Want") dives into this topic too as she writes about the Invisible Borders road trip she took part in 2017, colonial cartography and its repercussions. Anne Marie Befoune writes in "Vert le passport, amers les aéroports" also about her often negative experiences travelling with a Cameroonian passport. But this essay starts with Befoune making (not particularly convincing points) why borders are so important and in general, the essay feels a bit jarring kind of arguing that other Cameroonians have behaved 'badly' in the past (meaning, for example, immigrating 'illegally') and now she has to deal with generalized assumptions about Cameroonians - very briefly put.
But all in all, even though not every single text landed for me, this is a great journal featuring some wonderful writing, many interesting themes, and in any case food for thought and discussions.
In the title-giving story, "Taxi Drivers Who Drive Us Nowhere", Howard Meh-Buh Maximus writes about his encounters with different taxi drivers in Lagos and their stories. Sada Malumfashi writes in "Prepare for Whiteness" about his travel to a writing residency on Sylt, Germany. One of my favourite pieces was Yovanka Paquete Perdigao's "A Family History in a Passport" in which she takes her relationship with her passport(s) and dives into her family as well as (post)colonial history of Portugal and Bissau-Guinea. This essay is absolutely beautifully written and asks questions of belonging, oppression and privileges such as differing access to visas (or not even needing visas) depending on what kind of passport one has.
Kay Ugwuede's essay "The Africa We Get" (a play on the African Union slogan "The Africa We Want") dives into this topic too as she writes about the Invisible Borders road trip she took part in 2017, colonial cartography and its repercussions. Anne Marie Befoune writes in "Vert le passport, amers les aéroports" also about her often negative experiences travelling with a Cameroonian passport. But this essay starts with Befoune making (not particularly convincing points) why borders are so important and in general, the essay feels a bit jarring kind of arguing that other Cameroonians have behaved 'badly' in the past (meaning, for example, immigrating 'illegally') and now she has to deal with generalized assumptions about Cameroonians - very briefly put.
But all in all, even though not every single text landed for me, this is a great journal featuring some wonderful writing, many interesting themes, and in any case food for thought and discussions.
March 12, 2020
My review (not often a thing for public viewing) for Bakwa 09: Taxi Drivers Who Drive US Nowhere & Other Travel Stories, has been long in coming because beyond enjoying the stories and the unique perspective each writer lends to travel experiences, it inspired me to take on journeys of my own in taxis. Florian Ngimbis in the very expressive "Partir c'est mourir un peu" pinpoints how subtly we draw lines od perceptions in our experiences when he talks about "se déplacer" and "voyager", I was moved to think of taking a taxi as a journey and it changed my experience completely. Howard Meh-Buh in "Taxi Drivers That Drive Us Nowhere" talks about a taxi driver who had a degree and was taxi man by choice, these days I pay more attention every time a taxi driver or bike man sparks a conversation.
I could go on and on, with Yovanka's bold and successful waxing of history and colour with a passport as unexpected clay in "A Family History in a Passport" , Raoul Djimeli's funny experience border towns, or Nkiatcha Atemkeng's lively take on an airline's existence in "Impossible N'est Pas Camerounais", but the truth is that every story worth its words has an uncanny way of pushing us, the readers into something, be it deep thought, second read, or even action. Every story in Bakwa 09: Taxis Thag Drive Us to Nowhere & Other Travel Stories, hold its own masterfully and in one way or another spur you.
Non-fiction can be just as entrancing as fiction, and instead of transporting you into the writer's world, you find yourself in you memories for those who have travelled, or wanting to experience travel no matter how much of a pain it seems to be. This is the true energy of Bakwa 09, and why it is such a refreshing read, if not a must.
I could go on and on, with Yovanka's bold and successful waxing of history and colour with a passport as unexpected clay in "A Family History in a Passport" , Raoul Djimeli's funny experience border towns, or Nkiatcha Atemkeng's lively take on an airline's existence in "Impossible N'est Pas Camerounais", but the truth is that every story worth its words has an uncanny way of pushing us, the readers into something, be it deep thought, second read, or even action. Every story in Bakwa 09: Taxis Thag Drive Us to Nowhere & Other Travel Stories, hold its own masterfully and in one way or another spur you.
Non-fiction can be just as entrancing as fiction, and instead of transporting you into the writer's world, you find yourself in you memories for those who have travelled, or wanting to experience travel no matter how much of a pain it seems to be. This is the true energy of Bakwa 09, and why it is such a refreshing read, if not a must.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews