Notes on Contributors

Chiji Akiji is Professor of African and African Diaspora Literatures at Villanova University. He is the co-editor of Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text and the author of Folklore in New World Black Fiction: Writing and the Oral Traditional Aesthetics.

Amaka Blossom Chime is a poet, teacher and critic. She teaches poetry at Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu. A doctoral student and researcher, she is interested in postcolonial feminist poetry, oral poetics, and creative writing. Amaka is the author of two books of poetry. Her works have been featured in various anthologies and journals.

Kola Eke is Professor of English and Literature and Former Chair, Department of English and Literature, University of Benin, Nigeria. He teaches Modern African Poetry and Literary Criticism.

Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto currently lives in Lincoln, NE where he is pursuing his PhD in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a focus in Creative Writing (poetry). He is a MacPhee Fellow, 2022–2023. His works have appeared in Isele Magazine, AFREADA, Poet Lore, Massachusetts Review, Frontier, Palette, The Malahat Review, The Common, Southword Magazine, Vallum Magazine, Mud Season Review, Salamander Magazine, Notre Dame Anomaly, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Spectacle Magazine, Ruminate Magazine, and elsewhere.

Blessing Ezinne Okah, born on 23rd November 1986, is a Nigerian. She is presently a lecturer at Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu-Alike (AE-FUNAI), Ebonyi State, Nigeria. She has published creative works and articles, and has manuscripts both in academic and creative writing.

James Gibbs was educated at universities in the UK (Bristol and Leeds) and the US (American University, Washington DC), and taught at universities in Ghana (Legon), Malawi (Chancellor College), Nigeria (Ibadan), Belgium (Liège), and the UK (Bristol and the University of the West of England). He retired from teaching in 2007, but remains involved in writing about African Theatre, particularly about developments in Ghana, and the work of Wole Soyinka.

Marame Gueye is Associate Professor of African and African Diaspora Literatures at East Carolina University. Her work is on the verbal art of women, the intersections of gender and language, hip hop and social change, and migration.

Ida Hadjivayanis is Senior Lecturer in Swahili Studies at SOAS University of London where she convenes the MA African Studies and BA Africa and Black Diaspora programmes. Her area of research is the Swahili Diaspora, Indian Ocean and Swahili language, culture, and translation. She has recently published Peponi, the Swahili translation of Paradise by the Nobel Laureate, Abdulrazak Gurnah. Her publications include book chapters on Swahili speakers, articles on Swahili translation literature, and literary translations such as Alisi Ndani ya Nchi ya Ajabu and Poems for the Penniless.

Felicia Alu Moh has a Bachelor’s degree in English/Education from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Master’s Degree from Imo State University. She also has a PhD in English and Literary Studies from the University of Calabar. She lectured for over fourteen years before taking a break to work for British Council, Nigeria. She later joined Discovery Learning Alliance as Country Representative before returning to academics. She has written three full-length novels and has numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals. She lectures at Coal City University, Enugu.

Edafe Mukoro recently completed his doctorate in English and Literature in the Department of English and Literature, University of Benin. He lectures in English at JUPEB Foundation School, University of Benin, Nigeria.

Juliet Ifunanya Okeyika is a lecturer in the Department of Igbo, African and Communication Studies at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria. Her academic interest of study is Igbo Literature for comparative analysis. She has published articles in some scholarly journals.

Chike Okoye, PhD, is a Professor of Poetry and Postcolonial Literatures with special interest in Criticism and Cultural Studies. He is former Head and Chair of the Department of English, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria, and was on research leave at the Olivia University, Bujumbura, Burundi; where he was Dean of General Studies. An Alexander von Humboldt Experienced Researcher Fellow at the University of Munster, Germany, his scholarly essays have appeared in Research in African Literatures, Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, Routledge Handbooks, and Taylor & Francis imprints.

Chijioke K. Onah is currently a PhD Candidate in the Literatures in English Department, Cornell University, specializing in Black Atlantic Literature, African Studies, Trauma and Memory Studies, and Environmental Humanities. His most recent article, ‘Remembering the Dead: Testimonial Narratives and the Politics of Memory in the Representation of Boko Haram Terrorism’, is published in Postcolonial Text (2021). He is currently co-editing a special issue of Matatu journal on ‘Civic Dissent in Nigerian literature and films’.

Alexander Opicho is a poet, essayist, literary critic, as well as a short story writer, from Kenya.

Jeff Opland is the author and editor of numerous articles, books and anthologies of Anglo-Saxon and Xhosa literature. After a career in which he taught at universities in South Africa, Canada, the United Sates, Germany and England, he retired and now lives in Wales.

Nduka Otiono is Associate Professor of African Studies and English and Director of the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He is the author and co-editor of several books of creative writing and academic research including The Night Hides with a Knife – winner of the ANA/Spectrum Prize for fiction – and Oral Literary Performance in Africa: Beyond Text. His recent book, DisPlace: The Poetry of Nduka Otiono, was a finalist for the Archibald Lampman Award for poetry and winner of the African Literature Association Best Book of the Year Award – Creative Writing 2023.

Stephen Oladele Solanke is a Nigerian born in Lagos with a BA.Ed (English), M.Ed (Educational Management), an MA and PhD (English Literature) with specialization in Oral and African Literatures. He lectures at Ajayi Crowther University, Nigeria. A few of his works are Anthology and Analyses of Poems for Senior Secondary Schools (2001) and 28 Poetic Voices (2005). His poems have been published in AfricanWriter.com, Jerry Agada (ed.) Five Hundred Nigerian Poets and the International Library of Poetry (US) where, in 1999, he won the Editor’s Choice Award for the poem ‘moo’ published in The Woodland Echoes.

Aisha Umar holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and a Masters of Arts, Literature in English from the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria. She is currently a PhD student with the University of Ilorin, she lectures in the Department of European Languages, Federal University Birnin Kebbi, Nigeria. She teaches African Literature, and Creative Writing. She is the author of Yar’fari, a novel. She has published with both local and international academic journals. She is currently an MA Creative writing student of Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales, United Kingdom.

Uyilawa Usuanlele, is Associate Professor of African History, and Peace and Conflict Studies at the State University of New York (SUNY) Oswego, New York State. He worked as an administrator and researcher with the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) in Nigeria, and was a founding Coordinator of the Institute for Benin Studies. He is a co-editor of Minority Rights and the National Question in Nigeria (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), editor of Benin Studies under the Scalpel: Essays in Honour of Dr. Ekhaguosa Aisien (Institute for Benin Studies, 2020), and UmInstitute for Benin Studies, 2020), ans.

Dr Ukachi Nnenna Wachuku is newly retired from Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, Nigeria after over forty years of service. Dr Wachuku served the College in various leadership and groundbreaking capacities:, she was Dean, School of Languages, and as Pioneer of the Directorate of Gender and Youth Development, she was twice appointed its Director. She also started and headed the Theatre Arts Department, and was Head, Department of English Language and Literature. Dr. Wachuku has over thirty academic publications.