Where do you consider home and why?
My grandmother’s house because that’s where I feel most safe and at peace. In my grandmother’s house, I am closest to my mother.
List three words or phrases that come to mind when you think of home.
Peace, love, grace.
Have you ever been homesick? Tell us the circumstances and how it felt.
Yes, my mother passed away when I was nine months pregnant. I felt so alone in this world. I wanted nothing more than to be home with her.
What is your opinion about brain-drain?
It’s real. There are days when you can’t think straight. So many things to do yet you can’t seem to focus on any because times are hard. I am not in a hurry to leave Nigeria.
In what way does your physical location impact your creative output?
Poetry for me revolves around emotions and every place has a story. The best pieces I’ve written were conceived In places I felt most at peace and at home.
What is your preferred mode of travel and why?
By air, so I get to sleep.
In her debut collection of poems Home Coming, Sonia Sanchez’s writes:
“i have returned \\ leaving behind me \\ all those hide and \\ seek faces peeling\\ with freudian dreams.”
What does the phrase “freudian dreams” mean to you?
The mission to establish a colony of humans on Mars is becoming a realistic proposition. Would you agree to be one of the founding members?
I’m an African and I hold my roots with the deepest regard. I wouldn’t want to be in a place where I can’t feel my ancestors under my feet.
This is the 10th anniversary of Ake Arts and Book Festival. If you have attended this festival before, please tell us what was special about your experience. If you have never attended, what are your expectations?
I can’t believe the festival is 10 years already! Dear Lola, may history never forget and may it always be kind. The special part of Ake for me is the people–the stories that are shared and the friendships that are ignited–I can’t wait to meet old friends and find new ones.
What does Africa need right now?
Deliberate leadership!