FORTUNATE TRAVELLER
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Prior to the day of my departure, I had requested to leave earlier, but the patron of the small family of three that would host me advised me not to come yet – for our mutual safety. The Covid-19 lockdown was still very much in place and the virus was surging in Nigeria: Lagos as the epicentre, Oyo followed suit, and Ogun came third on the chart updated daily by…
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‘The music you travel with helps you to create your own internal weather.’ –Teju Cole; Known and Strange Things I: Confusion Na Quench It all began with an acute anxiety commonly associated with departures – probably it should be entered in a psychiatry textbook as travel anxiety, if it hasn’t been already. I had also exhibited the foolery of drinking a bottle of Pepsi late the previous night. The combination…
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Now, I am going into Freedom Park through its narrow entrance, with the stage not very far off by my right hand, enlarged photographs of some very famous people like the poets Wole Soyinka and Niyi Osundare, the YPP Presidential candidate Kingsley Moghalu, and a number of people who I do not know, but I’m sure are important people. I find my way around the big compound to the event…
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It is late on a Friday evening that I arrive in Lagos for the first time. It is from a six and half hour journey which I had begun around 12pm in Asaba, where I boarded a bus to bye-pass in Benin, and then another which took me through the midwestern route to Lagos. The city doesn’t welcome me warmly, or let me say I get an unusual welcome; before…
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But they that wait upon the Lord shall find renewed strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint – Isaiah 40:31 It must have been the thrill. Or the thought of it. Or both. Or did I see a picture somewhere? How did the thought even fly close to me, settle on me and mix with…
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I. ‘Fire-dancing’ (How do you make free spirit out of taut soul?) The music box stood on the table mat, dispelling polyphonic beats that hung heavy about the room, giving it a drowsy air. Yet, something buried deep in the rattling of the sékéré that dominated even the droning of the solo singer and the combination of percussion instruments that made the song, willed you to sail your body into…
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Not all those who wander are lost. – J R R Tolkien. The wind whistled into my ears, together with the music box playing Wizkid’s ‘Joro’, a song that was meant to keep alive our vibe and excitement. But everyone seemed to either be sleeping with their head inclined on the headrest in front of them or hopelessly drooling on the neck of their co-passenger. My eyes caught that of…
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Arriving Dubai Stepping back in Dubai – the city I lived in for fourteen years and had been away from for the last two years – I still have the same feeling of being at home that I had when I first visited Dubai in 2004 and decided to move there. I have this unusual instant affection toward some cities – and Dubai is one of these cities, along with…
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The first time I saw Uganda, it was through Barbara Oketta Musiime’s eyes. Those small eyes that carried many stories – Kony, Northern Uganda, Femrite, Museveni, Amin, porridge – and left many unsaid. It was 2012; we were both residents at the Ebedi Writers’ Residency in Iseyin, Oyo state. Some of the unsaid things, my own eyes would see six years later. On August 14, 2018 when my feet kissed…
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For a moment, I complimented myself on timing my arrival when I saw the heavy traffic on the other lane of the Third Mainland Bridge – sense will not kuku kill me. It was night, the rush hour of Lagos traffic. Traffic was free on my lane – towards Lagos Island – like a deserted highway. The other side was a gridlock of people getting away from the Island, characteristic…
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