I haven’t blogged in ages. I have been caught up in life instead – stumbling from deadline to deadline, agonising over the suspicion that I might actually be working my way feverishly to a premature ‘deathline’.
Since June 10 I have been travelling through Europe:
June 10 – Lagos
June 11 – Berlin
June 14 – Freiburg
June 18 – London
June 20 – Birmingham
June 22 – London, Edinburgh
June 24 – London
June 25 – Madrid
June 29 – Brussels, Turnhout (Belgium)
June 30 – Eindhoven
July 2 – Berlin
July 4 – Lagos
I have slept in airports, endured strange languages, taken tonnes of photos, and mused about culture and identity and language and history and exile. My head is a jumble sale of words and impressions and memorable incidents. I need to write all I have seen and heard, more to clear my head and free myself from the tyranny of words held hostage, than for any other reason.
Watch this space.
Meanwhile, a couple of links to some of the things I’ve been up to recently:
I was interviewed by the German journalist Ines Kappert (of TAZ – www.taz.de – a left wing German daily) in Berlin, about soccer and the World Cup and politics: http://www.taz.de/1/leben/buch/artikel/1/die-haut-ihr-weg-kein-problem/ (it’s in German)
I have continued to write my twice-monthly article for the Nigerian daily, NEXT: http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Opinion/Blogs/ToluOgunlesi/index.csp
A World Cup poem: http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2010/06/half-time.html
An article for CNN about Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s “Obama Moment” – http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/07/05/nigeria.football.ogunlesi/index.html?fbid=m2ETNr1t65n
An article for the UK Guardian’s Comment-Is-Free Section, also about the World Cup / Soccer: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/22/africa-world-cup-xenophobia
The literary event that took me to Berlin: http://www.hkw.de/en/programm/2010/cup_of_cultures/veranstaltungen_43003/Veranstaltungsdetail_44762.php
Tolu Ogunlesi 
Mr. Berliner!!!