Martinique Lewis on rewriting the narrative of Black travel

Publication of ABC Travel Greenbook: The Global Connection of the African Diaspora in 2020 it was a huge success! Tell us why the app is so important.

I published the book because I knew that if I didn’t know about these black-owned communities and businesses, neither would other black travelers who wanted to maximize their vacations. As travelers of color, we need to know where to find people who look like us in order to feel safe.

If someone goes to Israel, they might want to know where to get their braids done in Tel Aviv. If anyone is going to Japan and wants soul food, they should know about Soul Food House. In Amsterdam, Reggae Rita’s is the place to visit for Jamaican food. In Costa Rica, travelers should know that there is a national holiday for Afro-Costa Rican Day on November 8. Travelers would not have known about it without the book. Before Greenbook there was no collective resource to learn this information, and while there were black travel movements on the Internet, they were mostly focused on America. Now there is a resource that allows you to do just that. And black people needed it so badly, as our stories are the ones left out of travel shows and publications.

Luckily for me, the book took off, selling over 10,000 copies. It opened a lot of doors, but the main one was that it kept money in these black businesses, because travelers were looking for people who look like us. My main aim was to make sure that these people who relied heavily on tourism were still able to stay afloat, especially during Covid, at a time when none of us could travel.

the original The Negro Motorist’s Green Book the Victor Hugo Green was created between 1936 and 1966 to help African Americans stay safe when traveling up and down Route 66. At the time, in some places you couldn’t stop in a town after sunset, because the color of your skin. So he created this resource that told readers about Black-owned shelters, black service stations, black-owned restaurants, so black people could be safe. So I took the same concept, except I made it for the world. Victor Hugo Green is a hero – people don’t give him and his wife Alma Green enough credit – they’re up there with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. They are so important to the narrative of the Black journey.

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