Toye Oladinni at The Paris Review:
When ordered to surrender his documents by the KGB, he tells them, “I am not allowed to part with my passport. I am quite capable of looking after it myself.” He is beaten up by Persian guards “several” times in his attempt to meet the shah but perseveres through more than six weeks of inquiries with the Iranian government. In Old Jerusalem he decides to cross from Palestine into Israel under sniper fire, again just to avoid going the long way around. He speaks to the guards, arguing, “Please be reasonable with me, my good brothers.” They refuse him, clearly. “Looking at your scooter alone makes us sick,” one says. Àjàlá doesn’t listen. He asks for a map as a distraction and guns it over the border while they’re looking the other way.
In Nigeria his name has become synonymous with traveler, but it does have a literal meaning: Àjà—one who fights; lá—to tire out. Àjàlá, his surname by birth, dubs him a fighter who wears his opponents down.
more here.
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