Description: This book, the first-ever truly international collection of travel writings by black authors, includes material from the late eighteenth century to the present day. A narratives of the 'middle passage' to the observations of the modern tourist, this anthology includes the testimony of slaves, economic migrants, political activists, musicians, sailors, missionaries, students, foreign correspondents and wartime personnel. Some fifty extracts -- drawn from autobiographies, diaries, letters, fiction, essays, drama, poetry, as well as travel literature more conventionally defined -- indicate the bewildering variety of journeys which took place between Africa, Europe and the Americas in all directions and which have made the African diaspora what it is today. It is hard to find accounts which do not follow (however apologetically or ironically) the itineraries of colonial explorers or administrators. Travellers of the black Atlantic -- like those of other diasporas -- offer a vital corrective. However, their narratives do not simply reverse the usual direction of travel: they demand that we rethink the very category of travel literature and the certainties of home which it so often takes for granted.

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