Onyeka Nwelue

Onyeka Nwelue
Onyeka Nwelue
Born Onyekachukwu George Nwelue
31 January 1988 (1988-01-31) (age 23)
Ezeoke Nsu, Imo State, Nigeria
Nationality Nigerian
Period 2000-present
Notable work(s) The Abyssinian Boy
Notable award(s) The Future Awards,
2009 TM ALUKO Prize for Fiction,
2009 TAHIR IBRAHIM Prize for First Book,
2000 THOMSON Short Story Prize

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

Contents

Biography

Onyeka Nwelue (born 31 January 1988) is a Nigerian writer and filmmaker. He wrote the first draft of his debut novel, The Abyssinian Boy within the three months of his six month-stay in India, where he had gone to write, under the invitation of the India InterContinental Cultural Association (IICCA).

The son of a politician-father, Chief Sam Nwelue, also a Knight of St. Christopher and school-teacher mother, Mrs Kate Nwelue, also an Anglican Lay Reader and cousin to Flora Nwapa, he spent 6 years in an Anglican seminary, before travelling to India, where he practiced Hinduism before turning to atheism. He writes mainly on religion and sexuality.

He splits his time between India and Nigeria.

Education & Teaching

In 2007, he was admitted into the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he studied Sociology & Anthropology briefly before dropping out to pursue a diploma in Scriptwriting at Asian Academy of Film & TV, Noida. After his graduation, he lectured at NSS College, Ottapalam in Kerala, southern India. He is currently teaching Film Adaptation at Centre for Research in Art of Film & TV, Delhi, where he is a Writer-in-Residence.

Career

Literary career

Nwelue started writing at the age of eleven, as soon as he got admitted into the seminary. He wrote The Talkative Monkey and the Rabbit, which appears in a chapter of The Abyssinian Boy. He won the THOMSON Short Story Prize in 2000, instituted by the Principal of his seminary, Venerable Collins Igwe, a graduate of Wisconsin University, USA. Copies of The Talkative Monkey and the Rabbit were sold to students in the seminary, as it was compulsory. He instantly became the 'writer of the seminary' penning and directing stage plays for church events, seminary's anniversary celebrations and social events. He became the Head Boy after all, dramatically transforming the entire seminary into a social hub. Teachers revolted against him and he was threatened with a demotion by the then Vice Principal, Sir Kenneth Ibe, a Knight of St. Christopher, whom Nwelue has described in an interview as: "the man who showed me that old people are scared of successful young people."

In 2004, he was described in The Guardian as ‘a teenager with a steaming pen', after attending the 70th Birthday Party of 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Wole Soyinka. He had spent time with Wole Soyinka, images of which were published in the Guardian. That singular incident changed the way the world saw him and he joined the Lagos literary circle and gradually became one of the most engaging voices.

Nwelue, in his own words, was patient enough to finish from the seminary, after which he got an invitation from the India InterContinental Cultural Association (IICA) to attend the 2nd International Writers Festival - India, that took place in several Indian states in 2006. Thereafter, he stayed back in India to write. Done, he sent out his manuscript to agents and publishers and was reportedly claims to have received over 45 rejection slips. He was depressed for a long period afterwards and went into a hiding after his return from India.

DADA Books publisher, Ayodele Arigbabu, was in Capetown when he called Nwelue, who had just started his degree programme in Sociology & Anthropology at the University of Nigeria. He asked him to keep the manuscript of the book, that he would publish it. Many months later, a contract was signed and The Abyssinian Boy was published. He was rumoured to have been paid an advance of over N2.5 million for the book, which he has not made any effort to deny. His publishers, DADA Books, also didn't deny it.

Onyeka Nwelue is a founding member of DRUMLINE, a select group of creative young people at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, who were focused on creating and organising events. They also published a newspaper, DRUMLINE, which folded up after unsuccessful calls for sponsors. Few months after DRUMLINE folded up, Nwelue officially withdrew from the university to become the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of BLUES & HILLS Consultancy, an arts agency that champions the promotion of arts.

Danish filmmaker and visual artist, Lasse Lau bought the rights to film The Abyssinian Boy, three months after the release of the book.

He has been published in The Guardian, Times of India, NEXT, Punch, Daily Times, The Sun, Vanguard, ThisDay, Ecletica Magazine, Kafla InterContinental, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Insurance & Money Weekly and several other publications.

He is the editor of FilmAfrique, the exciting new film magazine, published by African Movie Academy, curators of the African Movie Academy Awards.

The Abyssinian Boy

The Abyssinian Boy is about a South Indian Tamil Brahmin essayist and his East Nigerian Christian wife and the hallucination their nine year-old child faces. The book, published in 2009, has received considerable critical acclaim from media sources like The Guardian, NEXT and notable Nigerian writers, like Jude Dibia and Chika Unigwe.

Shobhaa De has described The Abyssinian Boy as 'promising' and had written on her blog that it was the novel she had travlled to Poland with, to keep herself busy.

The Abyssinian Boy was published in India in 2011 by Serene Woods. It won the TM ALUKO Prize for First Book and came second at the IBRAHIM TAHIR Prize for Fiction, all in 2009, organised by Abuja Writers' Forum (AWF).

The Orchard of Memories

The Orchard of Memories is the title for his second novel, which has been completed. It is the story of a Chinese man living in Lagos and an Australian musician. It is set in Doha International airport, Qatar and chronicles the lives of these two men. It was inspired after Nwelue met Patrick Sze, a Chinese student at St. Andrew's University, Edinburgh. It will be published at the middle of next year by DADA Books in Lagos.

Filmmaking career

After training at the Asian Academy of Film & TV, Nwelue travelled to Oguta in Imo State, the birthplace of his mother, to film a story in 2011 based on the anthropological finds of German anthropologist, Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, who had spent over 26 years in Oguta, writing about Ogbuide, the river goddess. The film was called, The Distant Light and there was a media buzz about it. It has not been released yet.

He has done few cameo appearances, including in multiple-awards winning director, Kunle Afoyalan's new film, Phone Swap.

Controversies

Nwelue has been the subject of various controversies owing to his outspoken nature. He legally dropped the name, George in 2008 because of his atheist beliefs and for the fact that "I didn't understand the name George".

In 2009, in a newspaper interview, he claimed that "Soyinka writes bad dialogue" even though he still acknowledges the Nobel laureate as one of his mentors till today. In February 2011, at a lecture he delivered at Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi, India, he dropped a bombshell when he declared Things Fall Apart, written by the legendary Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe as "the worst book ever written by an African." He also went ahead to describe fellow Nigerian writer, the equally famous Chimamanda Adichie as "a nuisance to African literature", saying that she was only seeking relevance by connecting herself with Achebe. He posited that both Things Fall Apart and Half of A Yellow Sun should be banned in Indian universities and colleges since they presented poor, one-dimensional images of Africa and implored more non-Africans to read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The video of the speech is on social network, YouTube. In the video, he also added that Adichie's first book, Purple Hibiscus was one of the best books he'd ever read in his life.

An open letter written to the Abuja Writers' Forum in 2010 caused much controversy in Nigeria and was published in major national dailies and several online media. In it, he accused the leadership of the writers' body of not having paid his prize money for the two prizes they awarded him late in 2009. Till date, the money has not been paid.

Another open letter to the Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan comparing him to Zimbabwean ruler, Robert Mugabe was published later that year after Nwelue had met Mugabe's daughters who were schooling in Hong Kong on one of his trips. It caused so much buzz and sections of the public criticized the president for the poor Nigerian educational sector.

Later on in 2010, he released the very controversial list of the Most Influential Nigerians Under 20. The list which was published in most online and print media in Nigeria and the neighbouring Ghana was received with mixed reactions from various quarters. The list included singers Jon Ogah, Whizkid, Mo'cheddah, writers Chibundu Onuzo and Chizitere Ojiaka, writer and motivational speaker, Mervis Emelife and celebrity gossip journalists, Sheifunmi and Noble Ezeala. Entrepreneur and essayist, Aboyeji Iynoluwa and writer, journalist and self-styled mediapreneur, Eromo Egbejule were also on the list.

Grants, Awards and Festivals Attended

Nwelue received a grant from the Institute for Research on African Women, Children and Culture (IRAWCC), an organisation founded by former Nigeria's Mineral Resources Minister, Professor Leslye Obiora to 'empower young people'. In 2010, he was nominated as Creative Artist of the Year at the Future Awards'. He has been invited and participated at the 2nd International Writers’ Festival – India, Jaipur Literature Festival-India, Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival- Hong Kong, DSC South Asian Literary Festival – UK and Lagos Book and Art Festival – Nigeria.

In 2000, he won the THOMSON Short Story Prize. He won the TM ALUKO Prize for First Book and came second at the IBRAHIM TAHIR Prize for Fiction, all in 2009, organised by Abuja Writers' Forum (AWF). He was Visiting Fellow at Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) in Cochin, Kerala and was a Visiting Lecturer at Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi.

He is currently the Writer-in-Residence at Centre for Research in Art of Film & TV (CRAFT), where he teaches Film Adaptation.

BLUES & HILLS Consultancy

Nwelue is the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of BLUES & HILLS Consultancy, an arts agency which developed itself into a brand that champions the management, representation and appreciation of the arts. With the vision to be at the forefront of arts consultancy in Nigeria, B & H has recruited young writers, musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, photographers and designers and continues to represent them professionally, helping them curb the stress of image making and publicity surrounding their works.

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