A Review of Helon Habila’s Travellers By Iorwuese GOGO

Title of Book:     Travellers

Author:                Helon Habila

Genre:                  Fiction – Novel

Publication Date: 2019

Publisher:             Ouida Books

Number of Pages:          295

Reviewer:             Iorwuese GOGO

Travellers is a diasporic narrative that reveals the experiences of immigrants especially of those from war torn Africa and the Middle East in Europe. The novel is set in Europe revolving around cities like Berlin, Basel, London, and Lampedusa island where the unnamed narratorencounters various immigrants who tell him their stories of life in Europe and the horrible means through which they get to Europe. The story is divided into six books with titles as Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie, Basel, The Interpreters, The Sea, and Hunger.

In book one which is titled Berlin, the unnamed narrator who reveals that he is from Nigeria moves to Berlin from America with his American wife, Gina, whom he meets while in the US for his PhD. The wife, Gina, is an artist. She paints and is selected for the Zimmer fellowship in Germany while her husband, the narrator, is researching for his dissertation on the 1884/1885 Berlin Conference that led to the scramble for Africa, thus they travel to Berlin with the wife painting for the Zimmer fellow while the husband is researching for his dissertation. The narrator meets Mark who is originally a girl, Mary Chinoba, but has become a cross dresser and chooses to be referred to as a male. Mark is from Malawi and goes to Germany for studies. He has lived in Berlin for long before the narrator arrives and when they meet and interact, he learns of the racial prejudice in the city and the hatred against immigrants. Mark’s visa expires; he seeks for asylum but is not granted.

Book two, Checkpoint Charlie, is about Manu, a Libyan who has roots from Nigeria. He has migrated to Berlin, Germany from Libya due to the violence and continuous fighting in the country that disorganises everything after the fall of Gadhafi. He arrives in Berlin with only his daughter, Rachida, and works as a bouncer in a restaurant to earn a living while he was a medical doctor in his country before the war. He goes to Checkpoint Charlie, a park in Berlin, every Sunday with his daughter to look for his wife whom they got separated when their boat capsizes in the Mediterranean Sea and they promised to meet at Checkpoint Charlie if they make it to Berlin, Germany.

In book three, Basel, the narrator reveals the story of an immigrant, David who later became Moussa, who dies in Basel. He migrates from Zambia to Switzerland, Basel, marries a white woman and later they have troubles that lead to his death.

In book four, The Interpreters, the narrator meets Karim Al-Bashir, an immigrant from Somalia, on a train from Basel to Berlin. They are the only black people on the train therefore Karim draws close to him and they start conversing. From the conversation, Karim offers to tell the narrator his painful story. He says he is from Somalia but he migrated to Yemen because of the Shabaab violence and the outbreak of political crisis in the country. He goes to Yemen with his family but life there is hard therefore he moves again to Syria. In Syria life is good as he had a good job and fended for his family very well. However crisis breaks up in Syria and he moves from there to Turkey with his family. In Turkey, the standard of living is high and he cannot cope very welland to find a good job is also difficult. He decides with his wife to move to Europe with their two sons and find something reasonable to do and then send for her and the other children.

Book five, The Sea, is about the ordeal of the narrator. He alights in Frankfurt from the train to Basel to take another train to Berlin and mistakenly takes Karim’s bag that looks like his instead of his own. In his frustration he sees a train comes to the station and a man in it looks like Karim and he jumps into the train to meet him. It turns out that the man only resembles Karim while the train moves out of the station. He later finds out that the train is for deportees to Italy. He then ends up in the Lampedusa refugee camp around the Mediterranean Sea. He sees different kinds of people in the camp with miserable stories.

Book six is the last and is titledHunger. The narrator goes back to the US to finish his PhD and from there is invited to London by his girlfriend, Portia. In the house where he is staying with Portia, an immigrant from Nigeria, is hidden by an organisation against the abuse and deportation of immigrants. He comes home one day with his girlfriend and sees a crowd outside of the house protesting against the Nigerian immigrant’s illegal stay in the country. The immigrant’s name is Juma. The organisation hiding him contacts the narrator to help them hide Juma in his house in the wake of the growing protest against Juma. The narrator accepts and Juma comes to stay with him. From there he interacts with Juma and Juma tells him about his migratory ordeal.

The major themes in the novel are: migration, travelling, racial prejudice, socio-political and religious crises and suffering.

Migration:Migration is the major theme in the novel as it is a narrative of the experiences of migrants from Africa and the Middle East who endeavour to get to Europe for a better life in order to escape from their war ravaged countries.

Travelling:Travelling forms a major part of the novel as the narrator travels with his wife from the US to Berlin, Germany. From Berlin he goes to Basel, Switzerland, with a girlfriend he meets in Berlin, Portia. He mistakenly goes to Lampedusa, Italy, which still forms part of the experience.  He later goes back to the US to complete his PhD. He travels again to Berlin, and to London.

Racial prejudice:Racial prejudice in the novelis seen where immigrants are treated with suspicion (106). In Berlin, the refugees’ camp is to be moved out of the city because the citizens feel threatened by the presence of the refugees. In the protest against the moving of the refugees out of the city, Mark, an African immigrant falls down and dies. His girlfriend, Lorelle, later says he was pushed down because of his skin colour. David -Moussa- Portia’s brother marries a white woman in Basel, Katharina, and her family and friends isolate her because she marries a Blackman. In London, the nativists protest against the stay of Juma in their country. They want foreigners out of their country especially those they referred to as illegal immigrants.

Socio-political and religious crises:In the narrative, socio-political and religious crises in certain African and Middle East countries like Nigeria, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria which have torn them apart made the ordinary citizens vulnerable is revealed. In Nigeria is the Boko Haram, Al Shabaab in Somalia, the revolution against Gadhafi in Libya, Talibans in Afghanistan and ISIL and other militia groups in Syria. These crises cause havoc and make the victims think of nothing else but migrate to Europe for a better life.

Suffering:Suffering in the novel is seen in the experiences of migrants trying to get to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea or other illegal routes. Also, in the refugees’ camps, the refugees suffer a lot as they have inadequate supply of food, medical care and other necessities.

Technique

The narrative techniques used by the author are the first person angle of narration and the third person narrative technique. The first person angle of narration is used where the narrator unravels his experiences and encounters with different other characters. The third person narrative technique is used in situations where the stories of other characters are told. Sometimes the narrator lets the characters tell their stories by themselves. The employment of these narrative techniques have helped in balancing the novel hence it involves multiple immigrants and locations.

The plot line is linear moving from the beginning to the end which makes the novel enjoyable.The language of the novel is Standard English and it is simple making the novel very comprehensible.

Characterisation: The novel primarily is built on flat characters that contribute to the development of the story but do not play very major roles. The only round character is the narrator who anchors the narrative.

Characters: The characters in the novel include the narrator and immigrants such as Manu, Mark, Karim Al-Bashir, Juma and David also known as Moussa. Others are Portia, Katharina, Matteo and Gina.

Conclusion

Travellers is another excellent addition to the corpus of African novels on diaspora. It portrays in detail and with detachment the miserable experiences of refugees and immigrants in Europe. It is able to bring out the feelings and thoughts of immigrants and refugees from different and vital locations in Europe- Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, France, Germany and England. The novel is rich in geographic descriptions and spatial relationship. The language of the novel is extensive as it vividly unravels the author’s message. Simply, Travellers is a masterpiece on diasporic literature.

IorwueseGogois a graduate student of Benue State University, Makurdi-Nigeria. He has attended and participated in three national conferences and one international conference. He has published a number of articles in reputable journals and contributed chapters in books. 08134596611, gogoiorwuese8@gmail.com