Name Eromo Egbejule | Role Writer | |
Eromo Egbejule is a Nigerian writer and journalist accustomed to writing long reads, investigative pieces and art reviews.
In 2014, he was the recipient of a grant by The Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, Amsterdam to promote a cultural cross-exchange between African and Mexican music by among other things, lecturing on African music and culture at the Instituto d'Amicis, Puebla, Mexico.
Career
He has written for various platforms on the African continent and beyond, including The Guardian (UK), The Guardian (Nigeria), NEXT, Thisday, Ventures Africa, Daily Times of Nigeria, Nigerian Village Square, Ebony Life, YNaija, AfricaBe and more. In the course of his work, he has discussed literature and music on panels at several festivals, and at other events in Lagos, Yenagoa, Accra and Monrovia. He has also interviewed several personalities, including Angelique Kidjo, Nneka, Kevin Lyttle, Natalie Nunn, Antonio Lyons, EL, Edem, Waje, Omawumi, Burna Boy and Takun J.
He wrote a syndicated two-week timeline diary in 2012, "Seven Days and Seven Nights on the Occupy Nigeria protests for YNaija", Daily Times and The Guardian.
Currently, he contributes to The Guardian African Network and weekly for the arts and culture section of ThisDay on Sunday newspaper. His pieces are mostly reviews, interviews and op-eds on the state of the entertainment industry on the continent. One of his pieces, The Legend and Lies of Alan Poza was very controversial as it was a negative review of a movie, Alan Poza, directed by popular critic Charles Novia.
In the build-up to the 2011 elections, he also wrote a letter Is Jonathan The Messiah?, to the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, protesting the arrest of American-based Nigerian writer and essayist, Okey Ndibe on one of his trips into the country and offering advice to the government. Published in the now defunct 234Next, it sparked off a controversial debate in the comments section about the presidency's incompetency.
In 2013, he served as a member of the Central Working Committee for the The Future Africa Awards. That same year, he was part of an art collaborative designed to redefine the view of the continent, Artists on Africa, spearheaded by the Space for Pan-African Research, Creation and Knowledge (SPARCK), alongside fellow African creatives on the continent and in diaspora like Binyavanga Wainaina, Zina Saro-Wiwa, Hanaa el Degham, James Webb, Burning Museum and Lucy Campbell.
The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development awarded him a travel grant (the Prince Claus Ticket Fund) in 2014 to promote a cultural cross-exchange between African and Mexican music by among other things, lecturing on African music and culture at the Instituto d'Amicis, Puebla, Mexico in the summer of 2014.
In January 2015, he travelled to the University of Port Harcourt, then President Goodluck Jonathan's Alma Mater and wrote a controversial story on Jonathan's missing (and suspected non-existent) doctorate thesis.