A Stranger’s Pose
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A Stranger’s Pose (Cassava Republic Press, 2018) is an evocative and mesmerising account of travels across different African cities. With lyrical and absorbing prose, Iduma invites the reader to share in his travels, and the encounters he made along the way. Alongside these depictions of new places and people is a compelling, and very personal, meditation on the meaning of home, and the importance of intimacy to a lone traveller. Through these vignettes—an arrest in a market in N’djamena, meeting the famed photographer Malick Sidibe in Bamako, speaking with a migrant in Tangier who says “the sea is the only way”—Iduma showcases the generosity of strangers, the power of language and translation, and much more, accentuated by a curated selection of captivating photographs.
Praise for A Stranger’s Pose
“There are enough African travelogues—even loving ones—to fill a library, but none quite as romantic or idiosyncratic as what Iduma has achieved here.” — Bookforum
“A Stranger’s Pose maps…the complex terrain of human emotion.” — The Atlantic
“…an impressionistic portrait-in-motion of African cityscapes, desert shadows, and lonely rivers.” — Vanity Fair.
“Time and again, what takes one’s breath away is the truly, graceful writing.” — The Guardian (Nigeria)
“A Stranger’s Pose remains a powerful testament to the possibilities that result from human movement.” — Africa is a Country
“This book bears a treasure on every page.” — Tade Ipadeola, winner of the Nigeria Prize for Literature 2013.
“Only one word can hold it all, beautiful. This book is beautiful.” — Chris Abani, author of The Secret History of Las Vegas and The Face: Cartography of the Void.
“Iduma’s book is a marvel.” — David Levi Strauss, author of Words Not Spent Today Buy Smaller Images Tomorrow
What is the stranger’s pose, Iduma seems to ask, but that brief and perfect moment when breath and body are one, suspended mid-motion on that long road. Pick up this book and read every word and see for yourself what rests illumined in that revelatory light. — Maaza Mengiste, author of Beneath the Lion’s Gaze
“Storyteller, traveller, seer, Emmanuel Iduma; journey chronicler, itinerant photographer archiving Africa on her mercurial terms is, at last, here.” —Yvonne Owuor, author of Dust.
“Dream of a perfect book, a ballad with all the lyrics remembered. The sleeper wakes from dreams. That book is in your hands.” — Teju Cole, author of Open City and Blind Spot, from the Foreword.
“In elegant, meditative vignettes that integrate art criticism, canny
observation, and lyrical dispatches, Emmanuel Iduma invites readers to
physically and spiritually observe the expansiveness of the world and
its people.” — The Windham-Campbell Prize citation.
