An African Abroad

Book excerpt: Aurora Mizutani has written a book that questions everything we have ever thought about. “An African Abroad” is the memoir of one of Moshood Adisa Olabisi Ajala's children. Olabisi Ajala was a renowned journalist, traveller, and actor. The book briefly recollects the lifelong achievements of the author's father and highlights his interactions with his young daughter. “An African Abroad" is a collection of anecdotes that speaks to the reader about international adventures, friendships, relationships, trials, and tribulations. The first-person account addresses complex subjects, including teenage escapades, parental trauma, and redemption through political and historical self-re-education. The book invites the reader to adopt a realistic perspective (instead of burying their heads in the sand). It reveals her theory about the deep-rooted and biggest secret in the entertainment industry and shines a light on the prevailing darkness surrounding child exploitation and grooming. This fictionalised journal is written in a cynical yet uplifting instructive manner, where the narrator undergoes a state of censure to achieve her goal of contemplation, self-analysis and ultimately autonomy from socially imposed scruples. Spread into eleven chapters, “An African Abroad” transports the reader on a journey that depicts the narrator's character and growth.