This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.
STATE COLLEGE — Local author and Penn State professor of English and African studies Samuel Kọ́láwọlé’s debut novel, “The Road to the Salt Sea,” is set to be released by publisher HarperCollins on Tuesday, July 2. The gripping story follows the character Able God as he embarks on a journey from Nigeria to Tripoli, Libya, in hopes of reaching Italy.
Able God, a man who loves chess and self-help books, was working at a four-star hotel, trying to build a life for himself in Nigeria. Despite his education, the skill he uses most is “his well-practiced hundred-watt toothpaste-commercial smile.” After the death of a wealthy guest at the hotel, God realizes he cannot stay in the place he once believed could become home if he worked hard enough.
God joins up with the Boys International Airport, a group of drug-addled migrants led by a charismatic religious leader. The dangerous trek with the travelers in hopes of reaching Europe catches God in a web of violence, fear and uncertainty.
“It was important for me to make Able God complicated,” Kọ́láwọlé said “I didn’t want Able God to be an unlikeable character, but I also didn’t want Able God to be a likable character — the complexity of that is what I was exploring.”
Kọ́láwọlé’s debut novel — which is being published by HarperCollins — explores not only migration but also the decision to leave one’s home in the first place. His inspiration for the book started in 2013 when Kọ́láwọlé, who was born and raised in Nigeria, participated in a road trip with a group of writers and photographers from the Invisible Borders Trans-African Project. The project’s focus was to challenge preconceptions by sending artists across countries.
During one of the stops on his travels with the Invisible Borders Trans-African Project, Kọ́láwọlé met a group of migrants who told him of their harrowing experiences trying to cross the Sahara and being deported.
“After that experience, I couldn’t stop thinking of those guys,” Kọ́láwọlé explained. “The thing about writing is we kind of write towards our obsessions, and their stories didn’t leave me.”
The encounter was one that Kọ́láwọlé couldn’t shake. He explained that the trans-Saharan migration is an underreported crisis in which many die trying to make the journey.
“I knew that people were crossing. People go through five countries, cross the Sahara Desert and then the Mediterranean Sea into Europe, and a lot of them die along the way,” Kọ́láwọlé noted. “But this was the first time I was coming into contact with someone or a group of people who actually went on that journey.”
The experience led Kọ́láwọlé to research Saharan migration patterns and the stories of migrants who have taken on the dangerous journey, eventually publishing the short story “Sweet Sweet Strawberry Taste” in the literary journal AGNI. After realizing how much the story resonated with readers, Kọ́láwọlé expanded the premise in his debut novel, “The Road to the Salt Sea.”
In addition to drawing inspiration for the book from his own encounters with migration, Kọ́láwọlé has always been fascinated by the idea of movement.
“Physical movements, figure movement of figurative language, movement on the page — all of that,” Kọ́láwọlé remarked. “Some of my favorite books are about journeys.”
As movement, journey and crossroads are some of the main themes in the novel, the book provides an intimate look at the migrants and humanity to their stories.
“It’s a global crisis and it’s ongoing. If you do hear about it, it’s just statistics. So, one of the reasons I feel this novel is important is to put faces behind the statistics,” Kọ́láwọlé emphasized. “That these people are human beings with hopes and aspirations and dreams.”
“The Road to the Salt Sea” will be released on Tuesday, July 2. There will be a book launch event with Kọ́láwọlé at Midtown Scholar in Harrisburg on July 2 at 7 p.m. and again at Webster’s Bookstore Café in State College on Friday, Sept. 27. “The Road to the Salt Sea” will be available everywhere books are sold but Kọ́láwọlé encourages readers to go to their local bookstore.
