Safe Journey

The Nigerian boy is not your typical boy. He has been taught not to cry, not to laugh too much, and to hide his feelings behind the drapes of Masculinity. He has been taught to steel himself against women and to work hard (or else no woman will like him). He’s also been taught to be inadequate. In Safe Journey, Caleb tackles the problem of inadequacy in twelve dazzling memoirs. He highlights the struggle that is growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, the never-ending challenge to meet society’s standards, and the fight to speak a language and find a history that is both familiar and foreign, questioning the pressure to feel among. He highlights the search for a God that has been blotted out by religion, the search for his voice and, most importantly, the search for himself in the raging storm that is public opinion. Because, truthfully, all we need is to bid our new selves a Safe Journey, our real selves; the future is too difficult to travel through without good bidding and the present too discomfiting to dwell in. So Safe Journey to the souls that need repose, the quietly departing versions of us, the voices we do not own and the ancient longing for home. Safe Journey to the friends that walk out the door and the emotions that are no longer present. Safe Journey to inadequacy. In this book, Caleb helps us understand that we can journey from the past and still be okay, we can journey from that past safely.