Summary

Garnette Cadogan began walking in Kingston, Jamaica in the 1980s out of necessity. He needed to stay out of his abusive stepfather’s reach. Cadogan was sometimes out after public transit stopped running, so he had to walk home. The streets of Kingston were dangerous. One could get killed for wearing the wrong color or appearing to be from the wrong neighborhood. He often walked in his school uniform shouting nonsense so that predators would leave him alone. As he walked, he made friends with other wanderers. He became more extroverted like a Jamaican Tom Sawyer. The streets, his streets, were full of adventure. He would often join a “band of merry walkers” who just missed the last bus.

Cadogan came to love the process of discovering the rules of Kingston’s streets. He became a keen observer. He mentally mapped...