British-Nigerian author Noo Saro-Wiwa’s Black Ghosts: Encounters with the Africans Changing China (Canongate Books, 2024) is the 2025 Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year!

Black Ghosts is Saro-Wiwa’s travel memoir recounting her time in China. From the publisher:

China today is both a land of opportunity for Africans, South Americans and other non-Westerners blocked from commerce with most of Europe and Northern America, and an intersection of racism and prejudice.

Noo Saro-Wiwa goes in search of China’s ‘Black Ghosts’, African economic migrants in the People’s Republic, who live in separate communities and are vigorously involved in the trade between the continents. Her fascinating encounters include a Ghanaian cardiac surgeon, a drug dealer, a visa overstayer, a Nigerian popstar who sings in Chinese and men married to Chinese women who speak English with Nigerian accents.

The judges of the award praised Saro-Wiwa’s storytelling around a complex topic:

Writing this book took determination, stamina and courage. The People’s Republic of China is a huge nation and the black communities sought out by Noo are hard to find and penetrate. She tells the stories of the Black Ghosts she finds with great sensitivity and compassion.

Noo Saro-Wiwa was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and raised in England. She is an author and journalist currently working for Conde Nast Traveller. Her first book, Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria (Soft Skull, 2012), was shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award in 2013 and won the Albatros Travel Literature Prize in 2016.

The Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year, one of three Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards (ESTWAs) presented by Viking, is open to authors from all across the world, and celebrates excellence in literary travel writing including travel writing, food, illustrated and photography books with a strong travel narrative.

The other two categories are the Viking Award for Fiction with a Sense of Place, awarded this year to There are rivers in the sky by Elif Shafak and the Childrens Travel Book of the Year, awarded to Hike It by Iron Tazz, illustrated by Martin Stanev.

Congratulations to Noo Saro-Wiwa and the other 2025 winners!