This 2022 memoir details Ousman Umar's perilous migration from Ghana to Spain through the Sahara desert.

When we are born, our world is small. For Ousman Umar, the world was his Ghanaian village. Although he had never seen television or met a foreigner, he was fascinated by the land of the white people up north.

Umar didn't know his age or birthday, only that he was born on a Tuesday. He was about 12 when he started the journey north, unsure of his final destination.

Ousman Umar is a writer, philanthropist, and adventurer who migrated to Europe as a child — with no money or documentation.

North to Paradise is Umar's memoir documenting his solo migration from his village in Ghana to Barcelona, crossing the Sahara on foot and spending years in limbo in Libya ducking police and racist street gangs.