Vagabond: Wandering Through Africa on Faith by Lerato Mogoatlhe is out from BlackBird Books in April 2019!

‘Sometime in November 2007 while working as an entertainment and lifestyle journalist, a job that had seen me party and hang out with local and international stars, including John Legend, I realised that I was over my life in South Africa. My job was fab and my life should have been great but it wasn’t because who cares if you get to pose with Beyoncé? I had had enough of writing about people living their wildest dreams. It was time to see what the story of my life would be. I had always had wanderlust, especially for Africa. And so I made the decision to leave South Africa, an urgent need that consumed me and almost drove me to a point of insanity. I planned to spend three months in Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin.’

Mogoatlhe first pitched her manuscript at Jacana’s innovative Pitch to Publication event – a Dragons’ Den-style live pitching session.

• Read: Pitch to Publication presentations pay off, for both publishers and writers

The eye-catching cover was illustrated and designed by Jacana Media designer Palesa Motsomi.

• Book launch details here

About the book

When Lerato Mogoatlhe left South Africa for a planned three-month break to West Africa little did she know that those three months would turn into five years.

On these pages you will find capsules of time spent in 21 countries in five regions of Africa. You will be regaled by the tales of how she tries to worm herself into hotels when she has no money because of unpaid invoices back home.

You will be mortified and proud of how she navigates herself out of difficult situations like being misread by a man who tries to force himself on her.

• Find out more about the book on The Reading List