THREE MONTHS UP NORTH…

I recall very vividly the day (in February of 2008) I got the email informing me that I had been selected as the 2008 Guest Writer at the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden. Back then I had no idea that the Nordic region was also known as the “North”. The only North I knew was Northern Nigeria, the sprawling expanse of savannah land that is home to the Hausa, Fulani and a host of minority tribes. 

There is a Yoruba proverb that says that it is the man who has never left his father’s farm that thinks it is the biggest farm in the entire world. Now I know that there is another “North”, which I now affectionately refer to as “The Heart of Coldness”, polar (no pun intended) opposite of my erstwhile North in terms of general ambient temperatures.

Everyone who heard I would be in Sweden between September and October sort of regarded me with pity – why visit at such a time, when there is all of spring and all of summer in which you can visit and enjoy yourself?

But, ninety days later, as I return to Lagos, and its thirty-plus degrees heat, I do not for one second regret the fact that I have experienced little else but the Scandinavian autumn/early winter – Helsinki’s wild winds and gray rain, Uppsala’s shin-length snow, Oslo’s subdued but still defiant sun.

My first major event here was at the Uppsala Kulturnatten (Culture Night), an annual event in September when the entire town becomes a giant celebration arena: open-air rock bands, open-air second hand bookstores, impromptu dancing, barbecue kiosks, concerts and cultural performances of all kinds. The Institute had its own programme for the evening, a seminar, a music performance, and I did a reading and Q&A session with Mai Palmberg.

Next I visited Oslo, the tiny (by my standards), self-consciously modest capital of oil-rich Norway, to read at the launch of the latest issue of X Magazine, in which a short story of mine, translated into Norwegian, had just appeared.

Two days after Oslo was Göteborg, a few hours by train from Uppsala, where I attended and performed at the annual Book and Library Fair, the largest in Scandinavia. It was an overwhelming sight, huge crowds and endless displays of books – and food! I read my poetry and spoke about my work at two venues, met Ishmael Beah and took photos with Hanif Kureishi and Alaa el-Aswany.

After Göteborg came Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, where I attended the 2008 Nordic Africa Days conference. I delivered a paper titled The Language Question: English vs. Indigenous African Languages at one of the seminars, and also delivered the keynote closing address, which took the form of a discussion and Q&A on Religion and Prejudice, hosted by Mai Palmberg, and focusing on my short story To a Cartoonist, inspired by the controversial Danish cartoons of 2006.

A ‘home’ gig followed; an invitation to speak to 1^st – 4^th year students of the Rosendalsgymnasiet, a High School in Uppsala. I spoke about Nigeria, and about my writing, played Fela and showed photos. I also met the Mozambiquan photographer Sérgio Santimano, who had also been invited to exhibit his work at Rosendal.

At the end of October I visited Finland to participate in the Helsinki Book Fair. Smaller and younger than Göteborg’s, but no less exciting. It even went a step further than Göteborg by hosting a Wine Fair simultaneously, situated next to the book fair arena.

Helsinki seems to wears its eventful history on its face (or sleeves). The high point was the 17-hour return trip – by ferry (the Silja Line) – to Sweden. It’s difficult to tell what was most exciting – the festival of food that was modestly termed a dinner (it’s the most lavish I’ve ever seen) or the discovery that the sole aim of many people onboard was to take advantage of the duty-free shop to haul off huge quantities of alcohol at bargain prices, or the chance to see a live band perform in an arena bigger than many others I have seen on terra firma. Or simply the chance to wander about the many floors of a modern-day Titanic and wonder if there were any icebergs out in the liquid darkness.

Now it is time to return home.

Actions will always speak louder than words. I therefore do not expect my few words to do proper justice to my experience here in the North. (I certainly do not need to point out that this trip has given me the opportunity to tick off Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark on my “To Visit” list).

I will miss many things, the work-life balance for which the Swedes are world famous, the train journeys from Uppsala to Stockholm and back, the ‘university-campus’ air of Uppsala, the wonderful staff and fellow guest scholars at the Nordic Africa Institute. I will miss the office I shared with other guests, and my desktop computer, on which I wrote and blogged and viewed my photos.

Speaking of photos and blogs, the last three months have been quite active ones for me. http://www.felameetsabba.blogspot.com/ might give you a better idea of just what I mean.