Onyeka Nwelue Bio, Wiki, Age, Books, Parents, Instagram, Twitter

At 35, 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.

He 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 was an Academic Visitor.

Onyeka Nwelue Wiki

Full name	Onyeka Nwelue
Nationality	Nigerian
Date of birth	31 January 1988
Age	35 years old
Career	Writer • Filmmaker
Net Worth	$

Onyeka Nwelue Biography

Onyeka Nwelue (born 31 January 1988) is a Nigerian writer and filmmaker.

Onyeka Nwelue Age

Onyeka Nwelue was born on February 3, 1988, which makes him currently 35 years old.

Onyeka Nwelue Parents (Father and Mother)

Nwelue’s father, Chukwuemeka Samuel Nwelue (1945-2022), was a record-shop and motel owner from Ezeoke Nsu, Imo State, Nigeria who entered local politics and was appointed a chieftain and Knight of St Christopher, having formerly been a cashier and wages supervisor for construction company George Wimpey & Co. Nigeria. His mother, Catherine Ona Nwelue, taught for 35 years in public schools and is a religious scholar and social scientist. His aunt, Professor Leslye Obiora, was Nigeria’s former Minister of Mines and Steel. Nwelue has stated that he is the great-great-grandson of Royal court adjudicator Nze Ukwu Nwelue Nnadum.

Onyeka Nwelue Education Background

Nwelue briefly studied sociology and anthropology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, but did not take a degree. He subsequently studied for a diploma in scriptwriting at the Asian Academy of Film and TV, Noida. He was later awarded a scholarship to study directing at the Prague Film School in Czech Republic.

Nwelue left for Lagos when he was 16 years old to attend the Wole Soyinka Festival, after which he was introduced to the Nobel Laureate. Soyinka remains one of Nwelue’s fans: “He has read everything I have published,” according to Nwelue. Soyinka has also organized private screenings of Nwelue’s work

Onyeka Nwelue Career

Early in his career, Nwelue wrote for The Guardian in Nigeria, under Jahman Anikulapo, then-editor of The Guardian on Sunday.

He is the author of, as of 2023, 22 books, twenty of which have been self-published or through his publishing company Abibiman Publishing. He produced nine books in 2021.

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 same year.

Nwelue adapted his novella Island of Happiness into an Igbo-language film, Agwaetiti Obiụtọ, which won Best Feature Film by a Director at the 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.

Nwelue was an unpaid academic visitor at the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford for the year 2021/22; He founded Oxford-based James Currey Society and established the James Currey Fellowship in cooperation with the African Studies Centre. He is founder and director of the James Currey Literary Festival, which took place at Weston Library, University of Oxford. A bust of James Currey was unveiled on 1 September 2022.

He was also a Visiting Scholar to the Centre of African Studies in the University of Cambridge until both these unpaid connections were cancelled due to complaints from students about Nwelue having charged £20 for signing a book written by controversial Nigerian author, David Hundeyin and claiming to be a “professor” at Oxford and Cambridge, and for making negative social media comments about poor upbringings resulting in people being “stupid”- further saying “no poor person has any value”, as well as commenting “African women look like masquerades when they wear wigs and make up”. He also made misogynistic and sexist remarks at the talk for which he charged £20, saying women “slept their way to the top”, “oppressed men”, and marrying women held men back in life.

He was a visiting research fellow at the Center for International Studies, Ohio University.

Nwelue is the founder of La Cave Musik, a record label based in Paris, France, and co-founded the UK-based company Abibiman Publishing, through which Nwelue self-publishes his own books.

Having been a visiting fellow at the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford in 2021/22, a probe into Nwelue’s conduct was launched after Oxford students reported he had charged £20 for attendance at a book launch in January 2023; it being found that Nwelue had claimed to be a “professor” at Oxford and Cambridge on social media, his visitorship was cancelled after “persistent unacceptable breaches of its terms”. He had also been reported for social media posts stating that a poor upbringing “chains you mentally to be stupid” and that “no poor person has any value”, as well as commenting “African women look like masquerades when they wear wigs and make up”. It was announced by a spokesman for the University of Cambridge that his academic visitorship for the academic year 2022/23 was “terminated” following an investigation into his conduct.

Onyeka Nwelue Personal Life

Nwelue identifies as a feminist; in an interview, after making The House of Nwapa, he said: “I made The House of Nwapa, because I am a feminist. I believe we are all equal.”

On 1 February 2018, a day after his 30th birthday, Onyeka was involved in a car accident, sustaining injuries to his lower back. He was confined to a wheelchair for two months, before using a walking aid.