Onyeka Nwelue

Onyeka Nwelue (born 31 January 1988) is a Nigerian filmmaker, publisher, talk-show host, author, academic visitor and founder of the James Currey Society, at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford and a Visiting Scholar to the Centre of African Studies in the University of Cambridge. He is the Dean of the School of Cinematographic Studies at Université Queensland in Haiti.

Nwelue is the founder and director of James Currey Literary Festival, which takes place annually at Weston Library, University of Oxford. A bust of James Currey was unveiled on 1 September 2022.

Within the authority of The Nwelue Trust, he established the Henry Louis Gates Jr Fellowship, at the Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge in honour of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. He had also instituted the Akachi Ezeigbo Prize for Literature. Plus the Earl Lovelace short fiction Prize.

Nwelue studied sociology and anthropology at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and earned a scholarship to study directing at the 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 Students is named after him.

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

His 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.

Early life

His grandparents are Origbudu SBC Obiora and Ogbuefi Odiso Obiora (née Nwakuche and eldest sister of Gogo Nwakuche, Nwapa's second husband. His aunt, Professor Leslye Obiora, was Nigeria's former Minister of Mines and Steel. His mother is the religious scholar, a social scientist and a writer, who served in the public service as a teacher for 35 years, Ona Nwelue. He is the great-great-grandson of Nze Ukwu Nnadum.

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. A few years later, Nwelue travelled to India for the 2nd International Writers' Festival, at the invitation of the India Cultural Association. Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka remains one of Nwelue's fans. "He has read everything I have published," Nwelue says. He has organized private screenings of his films for Soyinka.

Nwelue also 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.

Career

Early in his career, Nwelue wrote for ''The Guardian'' in Nigeria, an opportunity given to him by Jahman Anikulapo, the then editor of Sunday edition popularly known as ''The Guardian on Sunday''.

He 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 is the founder of La Cave Musik, a record label based in Paris, France, and co-founded the UK-based publishing house Abibiman Publishing. Nwelue is represented by literary agent Priya Doraswamy of Lotus Lane Literary Agency, based in New Jersey. In 2012, Debbie Edwards of Debbie Edwards Talent Management, became his manager.

In early 2012, Nwelue was signed to the Pontas Agency in Spain. In August 2016, Nwelue's documentary film on Flora Nwapa, entitled ''The House of Nwapa'', premiered in Harare, Zimbabwe.
He is the director of the Oxford-based James Currey Society, which administers the James Currey Prize for African Literature. Nwelue is a visiting fellow (academic visitor) at the University of Oxford.

Bibliography

*''The Abyssinian Boy'': (DADA Books, 2009)

* ''Wole Soyinka: Encounters with the Grey Maverick ''

* ''The Beginning of Everything Colourful'': (Hattus Books, 2018).

*''There Are No White People''
* ''An Angel on the Piano'' (Griots Lounge, 2020)

* ''Island of Happiness'' (novella)

* ''The Real Owners of Britain''

* ''The Lagos Cuban Jazz Club'' (poetry

* ''The Spice Bazaar'' (play, 2018)

* ''Lemon Grass'' (fiction)

* ''Hip-Hop is Only for Children'':

*''Outside Weston Library'' (fiction)

* ''The Strangers of Braamfontein'' (2021)

*''The Last Trains out of Ukraine'' (poetry)

* ''Burnt'':

*''Evening Coffee with Arundhati Roy'' (fiction)

* ''A Country of Extraordinary Ghosts'',

* ''84 Delicious Bottles of Wine'' (with Odega Shawa),

* ''Saving Mungo Park'' (with Ikenna Chinedu Okeh, Hattus Books, 2021) (children's novel)

Filmography

* ''The House of Nwapa''

* ''Island of Happiness''

Controversy

After being invited to the Man Hong Kong literary festival, Nwelue was denied a visa to Hong Kong, sparking media outcry, the alleged reason being the colour of his skin. The decision was reversed and he got a visa to attend the festival.

In 2017, Nwelue was brutalized by military men for trying to stop them from raping a sex worker. A year later, Nwelue was arrested at the lobby of Onomo Hotel in Kigali and jailed for eight days, for allegedly "publicly insulting" Rwandan president Paul Kagame on Twitter and RwandAir. Nwelue was released after the intervention of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. Prior to his arrest, he was a voluntary lecturer at Kwetu Film Institute, founded by the filmmaker Eric Kabera.

In a May 2020 interview, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka disclosed that some "wannabe Christian Ayatollahs" demonstrated over Nwelue's novel ''A Country of Extraordinary Ghosts'', carrying placards that read: "Death to Nwelue".

Notable awards

* Recipient, Institute for Research in Women, Children and Culture (IRAWCC) Grant
* Recipient, Princ Claus Ticket Grant 2013
* Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Universite Queensland 2019.
* ANA Prize for Fiction 2021
* Best Indie Novel Winner- The Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2021 "The Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2021: The Winners"
''Crime Fiction Lover'', 8 December 2021.

See also

* List of Nigerian film producers

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nwelue, Onyeka
1988 births
21st-century Nigerian poets
21st-century Nigerian writers
Harvard University alumni
Igbo academics
Igbo people
Igbo poets
Living people
Nigerian academics
Nigerian editors
Nigerian filmmakers
Nigerian male poets
Nigerian male writers
Nigerian publishers (people)
Nigerian television talk show hosts
Nigerian writers
Ohio University people
People from Imo State
University of Nigeria alumni