By Olayinka Oyegbile
Ajala travelled all over the world- Ebenezer Obey
(A review of An African Abroad, Olabisi Ajala, Masobe Books, Lagos, 2023)
Many Nigerians of my age grew up hearing the lingo “Ajala travels” to describe anyone who has wanderlust or is restless. It was a lingo that no one needs a dictionary or explanation to understand. You just knew that it talks about travelling and knowing the world.
The lingo was given more life by leading musicians of the eighties who endlessly sang the praise of Mashood Olabisi Ajala simply known as Bisi Ajala or Ajala Travels, in their records. Even though he was a journalist and not a business mogul, he was a leading society man. His name signified travelling around the world. It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that he was synonymous with travel writing and thus could be termed the numero uno of travel journalism in the Nigeria!
Therefore, when the news broke that his travelogue An African Abroad which was first published in 1963 and later went out of print has been republished, it is bound to generate anxiety and expectations from the reading public. After securing my copy, I usually sit down with the music of legendary Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey which eulogised him in his soar away alum Board Members with the track Ajala travelled all over the World and two other tracks from the late Ayinde Barrister in Oke Agba and Iwa albums. One excoriated the popular journalist and the other praised him after a truce had been achieved in their tiff years ago. The two are the most prominent musicians who lionised his travels for the world to take note.
Now getting a copy of this book is like travelling with the writer around the world and wondering at his guts, daring spirit and enterprise as a journalist. You ask yourself what kind of stuff he was made of. He was daring and bold travelling the world on his scooter which had been advertised and lionised in music vinyl by almost all musicians of his time. You begin to wonder how he got the funding to actualise his dream of travelling the world on a Vespa (scooter), this was long before the invention of power bike! That monstrous race machines.
We go with him from India to Australia and from one continent to another with load of experiences that are not in any way similar but full of adventure and daring death and snatching life out of sure dangerous situations. Divided into seven parts to cover all the areas and regions he travelled to. Ajala was really a compulsive traveller and chronicler of events; the reader sees the world through his lens and thoughts. He was not shy in giving his verdicts no matter how tough it may sound to the receiver.
In India, Russia and other countries he visited, he met with fellow Africans who were university students. His journey through the defunct Soviet Union (Russia) was not less eventful. This was in 1957 and he had a taste of the proverbial ‘Big Brother Watching You.’ He writes “On arrival in Moscow, after I had been deposited at the hotel, I was forbidden to wander the city on my own. I was forewarned not to stop to talk to anyone in the streets. I was relieved of my two cameras, which were returned to me in good condition, minus the films, on the day of my departure. At this time, I and my motor-scooter were being bundled by Russian security police into an international express train heading for Prague, after ten eventful days.” (p30). His meetings with diverse peoples and Russians are well captured in the book and his daring dash in East Berlin towards Nikita Khrushchev earned him a month-long visa that allowed him to visit the country and interviewed the Russian leader!
The fact that Ajala was a man with a reputation with women was not hidden in the book from Russia to Australia where he eventually met his wife. His adventures around the world read like fantasy in today’s fractured because the way he travelled and made crosses across borders would today be dangerous and would perhaps have consumed him before he gets to the next country or region. Which desperate journalist or traveller would today without a visa or any form of travel document cross from Israel to any Arab country without risking arrest or being termed a spy?
One important thing that a reader is bound to wonder about is his tenacity; Ajala was really a journalist with an iron determination. He did not feel defeated or discouraged by any obstacles, barriers or artificial creation of man. There was obviously no impossibility in his world. In fact, it looks as if the more or the higher the obstacle, the better determined he was to show his mettle as a journalist without borders. In all his travels through India, the defunct Soviet Union, Iran, the Middle East, Israel, Egypt and Australia, he made sure he met various leaders of those countries no matter how short the period. Imagine a journalist who could secure an interview with Nehru, Khrushchev, the Shah of Iran, Nasser, Mrs Golda Meir, as Foreign Minister of Israel and later Prime Minister! What this clearly shows is that there was really an international journalist (a Nigerian and an African to the boot) who was able to get the attention of world leaders and interview them long before the Christiane Amanpour of today!
Ajala’s free travels around the world with little or no restrictions show that the world has come a long way. The so-called advancement has further polarised than united the world! Perhaps he was able to do all he did because there was no Al Queda, Taliban, Boko Haram or any of those terrorist groups that have turned the world upside down, unfortunately.
An African Abroad is a testament to the fact that good books are forever. First published 60 years ago, it still reads fresh and true. The writer and linguist Kola Olatunbosun as well as Masobe Books which agreed to republish have no doubt done a good job to rekindle the memory of those who have heard about the writer or were familiar with his name and writings in the 70 and 80s. It is also a good introduction to those who have not or do not know the origin of why some people are referred to as ‘Ajala Travel’.
