Critics assume that all autobiographical writings are essentially subject-oriented, and
therefore, unsuitable as a source of social history. Because of this critical perspec tive,
travelogues are regarded as subjective and self-aggrandising. However, colonialist travelogues
once served Euro-America as a source of construction of the history of their colonies and
mapping of their cultural landscapes. It was employed at the time as instruments of cultural
prejudice and colonial agenda. Using historico-biographical reading method, this paper examines
the social awareness dimension of contemporary and post-colonial travelogues and how they
have served and still serve as instruments of social and cultural critique through its interrogation
of the geo-cultural spaces of the colonial metropolis. This is to underline the fact that
travelogues, like other autobiographical writings, combine both the functions of self understanding and social criticism. By exploring how post-colonial travelogues are potent
instruments for decentering the colonial metropole and redefining both the post -colonial ‗Self‘
and the post-colony in Odia Ofeimun‘s poetic travelogue, London Letter and Other Poems, this
paper shows that travelogues are socially constituted and culturally constructed as a form of
social history.