Women Who Travel Podcast: The Long Legacy of African American Expats

20.06.2024 - 14:07 / cntraveler.com

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In her book Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad, Dr. Tamara J. Walker recounts stories of 20th century African-Americans who chose to build their lives outside of the United States—everywhere from Paris to Nairobi. Lale chats with Tamara about the romantic notions of 20th century Paris and the creatives who made it their home, like James Baldwin and Florence Mills, as well as her own travel experiences around the world and what it means to be a global citizen.

Lale Arikoglu: Hi there, I'm Lale Arikoglu, and this is Women Who Travel. Today, in honor of Juneteenth, we are talking about African Americans traveling and making their homes abroad.

Tamara J. Walker: This idea of searching for a place where I could be myself and not have to choose between the person I was at school and the person I was at home and just feel like all of my different selves could be fully integrated. So that was a big part of the story of travel for me.

LA: My guest is Dr. Tamara J. Walker. Her book, Beyond the Shores, recounts stories of 20th century African Americans who chose to build their lives outside of the United States. It's everywhere from Paris to a remote village in Soviet Uzbekistan, to Nairobi, but Tamara also weaves reflections on her own travel experiences and her family's throughout the book.

I feel like for so many people, and I include myself in this, often a sort of curiosity in travel and hunger for travel comes from a family member or adult in your life when you were a child growing up who was out there in the world or had come back with stories of these places and adventures, and it sparks something. And for you, it sounds like it was your grandfather, and you have a reading that you promised you'd share. If you don't mind—

TJW: I would love to.

LA: —reading it for us now.

TJW: I knew my grandpa had joined the army as a young man in Alabama, lost his right eye on a Normandy beach during World War II, and eventually settled with his wife and kids in Colorado Springs near the military base at Fort Carson. Those were basic facts that explained everyday facets of my life, like the way my grandparents both spoke with a southern twang, why my grandpa had a glass eye, and how we ended up being among the small handful of black people to call the Mountain State our home. But in my self-absorbed youth, I'd rarely given much thought to his life and career beyond that. I'd always assumed that the knickknacks on every shelf and in every cabinet around the house, beer steins from Austria, chinoiserie vases, porcelain dolls dressed in Korean hanboks and stacks of old postcards