Meet 34 year old Onyeka Nwelue, Nigeria’s most influential literati in Africa

Meet 34 year old Onyeka Nwelue, Nigeria’s most influential literati in Africa

Nigerian born Onyeka Nwelue is the most influential person in the African literati firmament, having established major literary prizes – the James Currey Prize for African Literature and Earl Lovelace Short Fiction Prize.

The 34 year old is the owner of Abibiman Publishing in the UK, US, Nigeria, South Africa and India, owns La Cave Musik in Paris, runs a bookshop, Hattus Bookshop in Johannesburg, co-owns Blues & Hills Canada, a film company in Canada and founded the James Currey Society at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford, where he is an Academic Visitor.

Ultimately noted as the one who rediscovered eminent British publisher, James Currey, Nwelue has an Honorary Doctorate from Queensland University in Haiti, for his humanitarian work and contribution to education.

Onyeka Nwelue’s family – both paternal and maternal – are steeped in the knowledge and traditions of the Igbo people, a lineage of griots that is prodigiously talented in the enterprise of storytelling, a lineage that is characterized by academic and professional distinction in various spheres, and members of whom have consistently ventured into and distinguished themselves in public service.

His great-great-grandfather, Nze Ukwu Nwelue Nnadum, was a court adjudicator in Nsu, in Ehime Mbano. He translated for the Portuguese as a Potokiri man and travelled widely to Sierra Leone and Cape Verde.

Nwelue said, “I have been researching his life and developing a documentary on him. This led me to Cape Verde and Sierra Leone. His story extends a legacy about which his family is rightfully proud. He has written and published over 16 books – including novels, a play, poetry collections, a narrative in verse, works of non-fiction, a children’s book, and
anthologies of essays. He has also produced feature films comprising documentaries – one about my dear aunt, Flora Nwapa – and a biopic about the late Ikemba of Nnewi, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

Onyeka Nwelue is currently working on James Currey, called Rediscovering James Currey.

At the African Studies Centre, he has offered himself for service to his people under the auspices of the James Currey Society, where he brings a unique fusion of knowledge of the grassroots, cemented in his rich awareness of his culture and history, and the rich insights derived from his travels across cultures, through his pen, in film, and in his travels. This is not to mention a vast network of influential associates, within and beyond Nigeria.

He set up the first ever Igbo Language class at the University of Oxford and the Haitian Creole and Studies class.

The James Currey Society has therefore been founded by Dr Onyeka Nwelue, a member of The Oxford Union Society, a debating society in the city of Oxford, England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford.

He is an Academic Visitor at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford.

Nwelue is a Nigerian filmmaker, talk show host and author whose book, Hip-Hop is Only for Children won the Creative Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the 2015 Nigerian Writers’ Awards.

He adapted his novella, Island of Happiness into an Igbo language film, Agwaetiti Obiuto and won Best Feature Film by a Director at 2018 Newark International Film Festival, and went on to be nominated for Best First Feature Film by a Director and the Ousmane Sembene Award for Best Film in an African Language at the 2018 Africa Movie Academy Awards. Island of Happiness was inspired by true events in Oguta.

He studied Sociology & Anthropology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Directing at Prague Film School in Czech Republic.

He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, by Universite Queensland in Haiti in 2019.

He studied Ancient Masterpieces of World Literature, under Professor Martin Puchner at Harvard University. The Onyeka Nwelue Scholarship for outstanding Imo State Economics Student, is named after him.

He studied Business of Music at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

He is currently a visiting assistant professor and Visiting Fellow of African Literature and studies in the English Language Department of the Faculty of Humanities, Manipur University in Imphal, India. He was an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg.

He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for International Studies, Ohio University, where he spent time in Athens, Ohio.

Onyeka Nwelue’s second novel, The Beginning of Everything Colourful, was shortlisted for the ANA Prose Fiction Prize in 2018 and his collection of poetry, The Lagos Cuban Jazz Club, was shortlisted for ANA Poetry Prize in the year 2018.