Disillusioned Place in Noo Saro-Wiwa’s Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria

Noo Saro-Wiwa’s travel memoir Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria (2012) is the focus of this chapter, which examines disillusionment attached to place. The text describes the author’s travels around Nigeria, the country of her parents. The memoir reveals deep anxieties with regard not only to place, in this case Nigeria as a nation, but also to the various cities and specific locations Saro-Wiwa visits. Much of the anxiety present in the text is related to the author’s father Ken Saro-Wiwa, an internationally known Ogoni activist and politician, who was hanged for his political engagement. The family bond is central, although a sense of unease and discomfort with the country of her parents permeate the text. Aspects of the postcolonial inform Saro-Wiwa’s memoir in uneasy ways, for example, in relation to Nigerian artefacts that have been removed to museums in Europe. To that effect, Nigerian culture and history have been displaced most concretely, relocated and put on display in former colonial empires. Saro-Wiwa attempts an excavation of the difficult truths of Nigeria as they relate to corruption, poor infrastructure, and congested traffic, as well as with the self and its place in the nation.