Nomad Shamira Muhammad Aims to Launch Illustrated Novel & Travel Web Magazine

The Ma’Ati is a novel and travel web-magazine hybrid inspired by the legend of a magical nation of nomads. Founding editor Shamira Muhammad created the Ma’Ati nation out of her desire to see the soul of exploration personified.

Muhammad says, “After living and traveling overseas for the past six years, I struggled to find a travel website that fit the needs of quirky, cool, urban travelers of color. As a self-professed nerd, I also wanted to read an illustrated book that would allow me to travel around the world one chapter at a time through magical, strong black and brown characters.”



Here’s the plan: “Each month, a new chapter of the Ma’Ati story is illustrated and published online, all written in, set and featuring a new global destination.” This work will be paired with the travel magazine that will “[highlight] must see locations for the month’s featured destination, plus interviews with amazing global artists, beautiful visuals and inspiring style inspirations. At the end of each year, the Ma’Ati will publish a completed novel compiled of all the adventures we were able to experience and imagine.”

So far, Muhammad has written six chapters of the book in Washington, D.C.; Alabama; New Orleans; Jamaica; and Cuba. Muhammad doesn’t do all the work on her own. The crew involved in creating the Ma'Ati include Jamaican artists Taj Francis and Paul Davey.



You can learn more about Ma’Ati on the website, which was designed by the Zimbabwean art collective WETU, and donate to the campaign on their Kickstarter campaign page.

Photo: Paul Davey

Deonna Anderson is Junior Editor at For Harriet. Follow her on Twitter @iamDEONNA.

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