Tolu Ogunlesi

I’m back in Uppsala, the beautiful Swedish University town 40 minutes by train from Stockholm. I’ll be participating in the What’s Culture Got to Do With It conference (details here), organised by the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala. I arrived yesterday, in the midst of relentless rain. Pardon my ignorance, but, I thought June was supposed to be Summer…

I spent 3 months in 2008 (Sept to November) as a Guest Writer at the Nordic Africa Institute. Read about my 2008 Uppsala (& Scandinavian) experiences here. Lived for those 3 months in the Hotel Uppsala, where I am back to spend a week this time. It was in this hotel, Room 223, that I watched Obama become President on the morning (around 5am) of November 5, 2008.

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The Bookaholic Blog interviewed me, published on their blog, (here) and on BellaNaija’s website. ‘Bookaholic’ is two super-hardworking literary enthusiasts and activists based in Lagos, Nigeria – Temitayo Olofinlua and Isabella Akinseye (presenter of the ‘Bookaholic’ segment on the Today Show, Silverbird Television (STV)).  

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I recently read Brian Chikwava’s debut novel, Harare North, and reviewed it for The Lagos Review (the Arts and Culture pages of NEXT). (Chikwava won the Caine Prize in 2004) The review appeared yesterday, (June 14, 2009). You can read it online here