Nigerian writer, filmmaker, publisher and bookseller, Onyeka Nwelue, will serve as a visiting scholar at the Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, Nwelue announced on his social media handles, Tuesday morning.
Nwelue will visit the centre several times throughout the semester to participate in events and programming during his visiting scholarship, working on his book, “Dogs of the West”.
“I am happy to join the Centre of African Studies at the University of Cambridge. This will help inspire young people all over the world, to go after their dreams, no matter what it will take,” he said in the statement.
Onyeka Nwelue was born in Nigeria in 1988 and left for India at the age of 18, to write his first book, The Abyssinian Boy.
He is the founder of the Oxford-based James Currey Society and the director of the annual James Currey Literary Festival at the University of Oxford.
A filmmaker and author of over 20 award-winning books, he is 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 also a member of the Royal African Society.
His non-fiction book, Hip-Hop is Only for Children won the Creative Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the 2015 Nigerian Writers’ Awards.
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.
He studied Ancient Masterpieces of World Literature at Harvard University and Business of Music at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
He was an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for International Studies, Ohio University.
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 established The Henry Louis Gates Jr Fellowship at the University of Cambridge.
He is an Academic Visitor at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford.
He splits his time between Oxford and Johannesburg.
