From Akwaaba 🇬🇭 to Karibu 🇹🇿 to Enkwan Dehna Metash 🇪🇹: Researching, Writing & Living as a Digital Nomad from West to East Africa

Jun 19
6 min read

Part Two: The What, The How & What I Would Tell You

If you haven't read Part One yet- the story of why I became a digital nomad, why East Africa & why then?- you can find it here. This post picks up where that one left off: on the ground, laptop open, living it.

What Digital Nomading Actually Looked Like

April-Louise with her hot chocolate at one of her regular working spots in Moshi, Tanzania.

A typical working day looked something like this: complete my morning routine, then walk or Uber to a hotel lobby or cafe where I had, over time, claimed my designated seat & made friends with the staff. Then- head down, coding my 49 interviews. Bringing together archival research & site visits. Identifying themes, planning & beginning to write the fellowship research report. Managing the emotional & spiritual weight that this work consistently stirred up - because this research is not neutral & neither am I. Occasional catch-ups with my dedicated psychologist - who was written into my project for exactly this reason & with my mentors too kept me grounded & connected throughout. Tuning into meetings. Answering emails. Switching locations occasionally to keep the energy fresh.

Now. The WiFi. We need to talk about the WiFi.

There I was, mid-meeting at my friend’s house in Zanzibar, connection lost, unable to get back on. Gone. No warning. No mercy. That was the moment I understood that for anything involving a live meeting or a hard deadline, I needed to be somewhere with consistent WiFi - a hotel lobby, a cafe - no exceptions. Yes, there were additional costs. Transport, something to buy to earn the seat. But with the exchange rate firmly in my favour it was very manageable - & the networking that happened naturally in those spaces was a bonus as another of my aunts had told me about.

On weekends & evenings - I lived. Fully & without apology. Live music that found

you whether you were looking for it or not. Real local food that told you exactly where you were in the world. Attractions, historical sites, markets, coastlines, nights out, conversations with strangers who gave recommendations which became memories. The balance between deep focused work during the week & genuine, present experience at weekends & evenings was not just enjoyable. It was essential. It kept me human.

Also, I have to mention my suitcases! I genuinely felt sorry for every driver who had to lift them. African sculptures & ornaments, gifts for family & friends, new clothes - my luggage grew at a rate I repeatedly told myself I would control & then absolutely did not. But somehow, every single time, God had my back. How I avoided those overweight charges is on a strictly need-to-know basis. Just know that where there is a will, there is always, always a way.

What Digital Nomading Gave Me

Something people do not always understand about research like mine- research that is personal, ancestral, emotionally weighted- is that the environment in which you process & write it matters. It is not a luxury consideration. It is a methodological one. Sitting in a cafe in Zanzibar or Addis Ababa, laptop open, hot chocolate, fresh juice or tea arriving, music somewhere in the background or coming from my earphones- that is not indulgence. That is a researcher protecting her work, her clarity & her wellbeing so that the writing that emerges is the best it possibly can be. Covid showed us that serious work could happen anywhere. I simply chose to take that lesson seriously. I had experienced writing retreats during my postdoc when finishing my first book- I knew what the right environment could do. This was simply a longer, warmer, more expansive version of that.

I met a version of myself out there that I had been missing for a long time. Fearless. Energised. Adventurous in the way I had always been but hadn't had room to express. A new lease of life. The deep, settled knowledge that possibilities are not just real but reachable - if you are willing to make the decisions & do the work.

It also confirmed what I had quietly hoped - that the women I had gone to be near were living proof of something I needed to see. My aunt rooted in Tanzania. My friend flourishing in Zanzibar. Both of them whole, purposeful, free. Being in their orbit did exactly what I had hoped it would. It reminded me who I was outside of the grind & rat race. & it gave me clarity about what I need to truly live rather than merely exist. I need sunshine. I need warmth. I need vibes, community, good wholesome food & depth & a certain kind of ease that goes beyond the surface. Realising that made me fall even more deeply in love with Ghana - which by the end of this journey I understood, without any doubt, is my soul home. A place that had already given me so much through my fieldwork, & that gave me even more simply by being itself.

Writing up my fellowship research away from the UK - away from the institutions, the hostility, the noise, the energy - gave me something that staying home never could have. Distance. Clarity. Healing. Space to think without the weight of everything pressing down. & being largely a one-woman team on this project made that solitude not lonely but necessary & right. The work was mine. Doing it there, in that light & that warmth (not so much in terms of the weather!), made it feel exactly that way.

April-Louise fulljoying the view at a hotel in Zanzibar.

As for what "once in a lifetime" actually means to me - it means lifetime lessons. Meeting & reconnecting with people with real depth who shifted something in how I see the world & my place in it. Understanding my own advantages & blind spots as a Black British woman living on the continent- not as a tourist passing through, but as someone be-ing, honestly & imperfectly, to be present somewhere for a while. & knowing - truly knowing rather than just saying - that anything is possible. Mindset. Decisions. Choices. Resources. That combination, when you get it right, changes everything.

What I Learned & What I Would Tell You

Have your own space. Hospitality is a beautiful thing - but you cannot always rely on it, especially on a tight budget. Sometimes the space stops working for you & you need to find somewhere else, no explanation required. Visiting family & friends is a gift - but living & working inside someone else's home is a very different dynamic. Be ready to invest in your own space when you need it. Your work & your peace come first. It is not a luxury. It is a requirement.

Your discipline is your anchor. When everything around you is alive & interesting & calling your name, the only thing that keeps you on task is your love for your work & your commitment to finishing it. I knew why I was there. I knew what my research meant & who it was for. That knowing was always enough.

Know your research & know yourself. This one is for the academics, the researchers, the ones doing work that is also personal - work that lives in your body as much as your bibliography. Research like mine does not clock off when the laptop closes. It travels with you, sits with you over dinner, wakes you up at 3am with a new connection or an old trigger. When you are doing it by yourself - sometimes it's ok to have distance to allow the process to marinate & the work to speak to you & lead the direction. Trust yourself & the space & the time. & equally - know when to put the work down & let the place you are in do its own quiet, necessary work on you. The environment is not a distraction from the research. For research like this, it is part of the method.

Before You Go

Life is too short not to be happy. You are not what you do. If you dropped dead tomorrow, your workplace would be recruiting your replacement as soon as possible - so make your work work for you. Not the other way around.

& find, create &/or immerse yourself in whatever gives you joy.

I am currently in the in-between which I wrote about here. My findings are still being written up - & if nobody told you, that process is its own journey entirely. Nonlinear, humbling & at times relentless. But I am so glad I gave myself my digital nomad time working, exploring & (re)connecting with new places, people & myself before returning back to the belly of the beast & my first home- Inglan.