Journey to Self: An African Story

Ethiopian Airlines flight 961 plunged into the Indian Ocean in an attempted water landing, killing 125 of the 175 people on board. 10-year-old Jonathan and his 3-year-old brother Richie are left fatherless. Feelings of anxiety and uncertainty become their new normal as they grow up with a distant and neglectful mother.

Now an adult, Jonathan is an ambitious graduate who wants to make something of his life. Richie, however, has turned to alcohol much like his mother. Despite his efforts and best intentions, Jonathan feels as if every step forward that he makes comes with a forced retreat of two or more steps back, ensuring that he experiences the same emotions of uncertainty, fear, and insecurity that he grew up with. He loses his job, and then Emilie, the one girl he felt a true connection with. This satisfies Beatrice, Emilie's best friend, who has never approved of Jonathan.

When Jonathan lands a new better better-paying job, it comes with Peter, a supervisor from hell, bent on getting rid of him, and he has no idea why. Why is he constantly fighting to simply be? Why do others seem to have it easy?

Inevitably, everything comes to a head...

Journey to Self – An African Story is a thought-provoking read that will take you on an introspective journey of your own.

"E. K. Ndanguzi’s novel has a cinematographic dimension to it, which makes the scenes and the dialogues move before the reader’s eyes. Set in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this vividly visual and kinematic novel depicts the inner landscape of a character that, as with everybody else, is blinded by fear from his experiences growing up." - The African Book Review