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Dr. Onyeka Nwelue is a current Academic Visitor to the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford and a Visiting Scholar to the Centre of African Studies in the University of Cambridge. He 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 drawn 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 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. Onyeka was an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Johannesburg. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for International Studies, Ohio University. Also, he established The Henry Louis Gates Jr Fellowship at the University of Cambridge.
His novel, The Strangers of Braamfontein (BookCraft Africa), won the 2021 ANA Prose Prize and the Best Indie Novel at the Crime Fiction Lovers Awards in 2021. Onyeka, who splits his time between Oxford and Johannesburg, chatted with Henry Akubuiro from the UK.
Onyeka Nwelue means different things to different people. To others you are a prolific author, publisher, academic, film maker and culture activist. To others, you are Mr. Controversy and hater of marriage. How would you describe Dr. Onyeka Nwelue?
Thank you, sir, for this privilege. I can’t describe Onyeka Nwelue really. I will just say, he is a bag of contradictions. He is everything. You take what you want.
I am like a character in a book or film. Flawed. I don’t understand people who try to figure me out. I have never really bothered about being counted as a good person or a bad person. I just live. I make people sad and happy equally. What I know is that I am not living for anyone. The little things of life. I look at them in splendid ways.
Your rise from a young man who arrived Lagos from Nsukka with nowhere to go and to an international star who’s moving everywhere in the world is a remarkable tale of hope for African youths. What were your dreams as a student at Nsukka and how did you go about executing them after school?
I am quite strategic. I have things I want, stream-lined in my head. I work towards them, gradually and get the results that I want. It is quite simple. Staying focused. There are so many distractions these days, and people can get easily distracted. I don’t see a lot of young people with my guts. Others get tired of chasing their dreams and get married. You can’t really do the things I am doing when you have a family. You will drown. I sincerely think people should focus on whatever that keeps them grounded.
I remember meeting you in Nsukka in 2008. I have always admired what you do with your pen. From Mr. Hyacinth Obunseh and many others, I wanted to also be a publisher. I looked at those who came before me and I said to myself, I have to outdo these people. I stayed focused, because I know exactly what I want.
What’s your greatest eye opener in Haiti which you have lived and taught as a scholar vis-a-vis its African connection?
Haiti is one of the most impoverished nations on earth. I am doing what I can to support this country, which is why my work there is voluntary. I think that, also, Haiti has taught me a lot. In many ways, poverty is self-induced.
Haiti’s history is the true history of the African race. I have even written a book, Outside Weston Library, with a Haitian character, telling the world about the history of Haiti in Creole. Lots of things I have learnt from Haiti, that I am trying to show to the world, through literature.
You are a visiting scholar at Oxford and Cambridge, how do you combine both roles?
It’s not easy, but I am trying my best. A trip to Cambridge from Oxford costs a fortune, and is long. I am trying my best to make it work. Nobody persuaded me to take up these positions.
In these two institutions you mentioned, I have established fellowships, which cost a lot of money. But I am happy to do them. It’s very important that we invest in education. We need to fund research, to be able to liberate our minds.
Interestingly, you have instituted the James Currey Fellowship at both universities, tell us more about these fellowships and their little beginnings. Who should apply?
The James Currey Fellowship is in its second year. Stephen Embleton was our inaugural fellow at Oxford. Mitterand Okorie comes in as the second. David Hundeyin is our fellow at Cambridge. It is coming on well. People do not need to apply. I made it in a way that I am the one who picks the fellow and presents their CVs to the university. It is not open to the public like the prizes I established. This way, I have the power to decide, because it is my money.
I established the Henry Louis Gates Jr Fellowship and the James Currey Fellowship. These are named after two important figures that have contributed immensely to the development of African studies. It’s best to celebrate them while they are here.
You became a major talking point in Nigeria last year with the James Currey Festival held at Oxford University. What’s your biggest takeaway from last year, and how do you address certain issues raised by some aggrieved Nigerian writers from the north who felt excluded?
I am not aware some people were aggrieved at all. Take this message to them: I don’t care how they feel. It is also my money. I sponsor the festival by myself. I invite anyone I want to invite. In the past, I was mocked for seeking public funds. These ‘aggrieved writers from the north’ did not feel aggrieved to give me money. Why do they think I care about how they feel? Anyway, there were writers from northern Nigeria at the festival. Suleiman Ahmed was there, but also, tell every Nigerian writer that how they feel is none of my business. The James Currey Project is not for Nigerians. It is not a project by the Nigerian government. James Currey is not a Nigerian. There should be no entitlement. How many times have Nigerians invited me to their literary festivities, except Mr. Jahman Anikulapo and Efe Azino? And that is why I invited them to mine. Have you seen me at any book festival in the north? Have I complained? They can cry me a river. I want to hiss.
I won’t invite them. Let them stay where they are. Why would they fight to be in something I established? Am I their father? Let them enjoy all the ones in Nigeria. Can’t these writers boycott my events as I have never bothered to be a part of their lives? Can’t I stay cancelled?
Also, the James Currey Prize for African Literature is accepting entries for 2023, what are we expecting this year? Why was the prize named after James Currey?
This prize is named after James Currey, who helped to bring African writing to a global audience. It’s my way of saying thank you to him. You are the jury chair. I leave everything to you. For the prize, the jury has an autonomy to decide what happens. I have no influence over the jury. They make their decision.
It has been reported that Abibiman London has acquired the African Writers Series, what plans are in the works to restore the lost glory of the foremost African literary series run by Heinenann?
Yes, and we started with Professor Akachi Ezeigbo’s A Million Bullets and a Rose. We are publishing Flora Nwapa’s last work, The Lake Goddess. We have a lot of plans for new and old works under the series, and we will be unleashing them soon.
You have also instituted a prize for Igbo literature, what’s the thinking behind the prize, and are you considering raising the prize money, considering criticisms in some quarters that it should be raised?
I do not take any criticism from Nigerians seriously, I must tell you. And I don’t even listen to them. One of the prizes is to honour my father, who just passed away in August. If they want to up the amount for the prize, they can send the money to me. I am not interested in any debate that is not productive. If they think the money is not a lot, they can establish one and make the money big. I don’t have time for frivolous things. I don’t listen to Nigerians o.
On a lighter note, is Dr. Nwelue intending to surprise the world this year by marrying a wife as a new year resolution? Will he be less controversial this year?
I have seen men destroyed by marriage. I have seen men just think about how to feed their family and their dreams die. Marriage is out of the picture for me. I have seen all the people that marriage messed up. It’s not something I want. People can go ahead and marry. I am not there. I get tired of people easily. I am not capable of ‘loving’ one person. I can’t lay my life down for anybody. People should carry their cross. I am not anyone’s saviour. Anybody hoping I will, one day, marry someone, to come and stifle and suffocate me, is wasting his time.
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