Culture often arrives before language.

For much of my career, I’ve watched ideas appear long before we had the words to describe them.

Writing is where I slow those moments down. It is where I test ideas, connect seemingly unrelated dots, and make sense of questions that are still unfolding in public life.

Some essays begin with a personal story. Others begin with history, language, culture, or current events. Together, they explore belonging—not simply as a feeling, but as one of the defining civic questions of the twenty-first century.

Whether published in a national magazine or shared directly with readers, every essay belongs to a larger body of work exploring one central question:

Who Belongs. Who Decides.

 Featured Essay

 
 

From the Author

Sometimes you don’t realize what you’re really writing until one sentence refuses to let you look away. That happened to me with this essay. There was one sentence I wasn’t sure I was ready to write. Not because it was controversial but because it was true. Once I finally wrote it, I realized it had been quietly reshaping the entire piece.

I’m especially proud to share that this essay was published in Ms. Magazine as part of its Feminist 250: Democracy’s Feminist Future series. I’d love for you to read it. When you’re finished, tell me which sentence stayed with you. If it resonates, I hope you’ll share it with someone else.

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From the Archive

My writing has appeared in publications exploring public policy, global affairs, democracy, leadership, and culture.

  • Harvard Data Science Review

    • When Lions Write: An American Immigrant Story

  • LinkedIn Essays

    • They Saw the Outcome. I Saw the Distance

    • Beyond Borders: What Africans in the Diaspora Can Teach the World About Leadership and Belonging

  • Medium

    • Finding My Voice 30 Years Later: Lessons from Clueless & Becoming American

    • Creative Kindness in a Hurting World — Honoring Pope Francis

    • #BeTheFirst: The uncomfortable yet necessary road to progress

    • Zuckerberg In Nigeria: How “Doing Business” Will Change Africa

  • World Economic Forum Agenda

    • A solution to migration and employment issues in Africa? Remote working

    • From one immigrant to another: An open letter

    • Are papers more important than people?

Each publication represents a different chapter in the evolution of my thinking—from migration and global labor markets to belonging, democracy, and civic participation.  

Profiles & Interviews

Not every story is one I’ve written.

This collection brings together interviews, profiles, and conversations that explore the ideas behind the work and the experiences that shaped it.

  • Ms. Magazine profile

    • Immigration Is an Opportunity, Not a Problem: The Ms. Q&A with Tolu Olubunmi of ‘How to Speak American’

  • Nasdaq

    • Tolu Olubunmi: Teaching the Lion to Write

  • Washington and Lee University

    • American Dream: Tolu Olubunmi ’02 has made her journey to citizenship an opportunity to inspire and serve others.

“Until the lion learns to write, all the stories will glorify the hunter.”

This African proverb inspired the name Lions Write many years ago. It still reminds me why telling our own stories in our own words matters. It also asks us to go further, not simply to tell our stories but to interrogate the stories we inherit and the ones we choose to leave behind.

Press Coverage