Akumbu Uche

Akumbu Uche is a Nigerian author and playwright. She was born in Kaduna and grew up in Port Harcourt. She studied Mass Communication at the University of Jos and currently lives in Owerri. Her experience as a primary school teacher inspired her to write for children, and her first children’s book, 'Yaks and the Giant' (Okada Books, 2017) is a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk with African values.

In 2021, she participated in the Engaging Borders Africa Project, promoting peace and countering violent extremism through literature. In 2022, she was a writer-in-residence at the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD) in Accra, Ghana.

Her current work-in-progress, A Stitch in Time, is a middle grade novel. An exploration of grief, displacement, and resilience, the book is set against the backdrop of the Boko Haram crisis.

Nneb Akpom-Simon

Nneb Akpom-Simon is a Director of Simon Education and has worked in supplementary education for 30 years, tutoring and coaching children, young people and parents. She is a community activist, involved in many projects to empower Black people in the UK and Globally. 

Simon Education together with Crater Library Nigeria developed the Afri-Lit Lab children’s literature platform which provides free access to books with Black Children as the main character. The project was initiated to improve global access to black children's literature. With a phone, laptop or tablet and wifi schools, parents and children are given free access to hundreds of books including bilingual books. The platform also supports Simon Education's 'SEADS' project which provides free teacher training and educational resources to schools in Africa and the Caribbean. Nneb is also an equality, diversity and inclusion specialist and worked as a lead in Higher Education for over three decades and is passionate about leveling inequality across all groups. 

Amarachukwu Chimeka

Amarachukwu Chimeka holds a B.A. and an M.A. from the universities of Benin and Lagos, Nigeria, and a Diplome D'etude en Langue Francais. 

She was once a recepient of the University of Lagos School of Postgraduate Studies' Graduate Fellowship Award. She is a seasoned Copyeditor, Profreader, Copywriter, and Publisher.   

She edits and publishes books in English and Igbo, and is the founder of Purple Shelves, a publishing and literacy development company, and one of the founders of The Village Square Journal.

As a literary activist, she has spearheaded several literary campaigns and book drives and actively promotes the translation of children's books into Nigerian indigenous languages. Through her campaign, she has reached children in undeserving communities, urban slums, orphanage homes, and juvenile prisons in Nigeria. She also facilitates book clubs for private schools and corporate organisations.Because of her passion for raising the next generation of readers and her love for children, she has gone on to author a series of children's books.  

Amarachukwu Chimeka is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Everyday Chapter, a literary community for Gen Zs and Millennials with hubs in Ibadan, Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Abuja. She is also the Corporate Social Responsibility Administrator for the recently-launched sports reality TV Show, Africa Star X.

In December 2021, she was awarded the Richard S Holden Diversity Fellowship by ACES, funded by the Dow Jones News Fund and the Scripps Howard Fund.

Chukwuebuka Onyia

Chukwuebuka Onyia is a strategic creative thinker and content developer; whose passions revolve around sustainable environment, energy, and human capital development. The Enugu-born youth believes that the positive change Africa needs starts from the mind, which means that if Africans think positively of Africa, it will be the hub of globalization.

Chukwuebuka has led different youth organizations and social impact groups, which include the President, Anglican Youth Fellowship of Nigeria, Udi Diocesan Council. His leadership ideology promotes teamwork and individual development. "How Football Saved My Life" is his first work, where he stylishly used both salient and obvious elements of the popular game of football to drive home life lessons that are capable of transforming one's life and leading to positive life decisions.He is currently based in Abuja where he continues to follow his passion for sustainability, Circularity, and Leadership. 

Daniella Sachs

Daniella Sachs, is a disruptive innovator and impact designer who believes in the passionate pursuit of possibility. Her superpower is her ability to venture into the unknown to identify and connect the dots that unlock opportunities most people don’t realise are there.

She wields a multidisciplinary background in architecture, urban, town and regional planning (specialised in sustainable tourism-led economic development), topped off with an MBA specialised in Doing Business in Africa, and Conservation. Her holistic approach is further empowered by her global work and experience as an entrepreneur, product and experience developer, creative problem-solver, design strategist, thought leader, teacher, writer, and podcast host of “What’s Design Anyway.”

You can search for her writing on Inc.Africa, where she has two monthly columns on design and tourism. Listen to her Podcast “What’s Design Anyway” here: https://anchor.fm/whatsdesignanyway. You can connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniella-sachs. Instagram: @daniella_sachs. You can also sign up for her soon to be released newsletter and exciting resources here: https://linktr.ee/daniellasachs .

Seth Avusuglo 

Seth Avusuglo manages the Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora (LOATAD), a Pan-African literature house, museum, and writing residency in Accra, Ghana. Seth is passionate about literature and how it can help transform Africa and her diaspora. Reading, traveling, and absorbing new knowledge, are a few of his hobbies. 

Husayn Zaguru

Husayn Zaguru (Officially Hussain Zaguru AbdulQadir) is a Didactic & Artistic Media Creative, Comm4Dev Consultant, Content creator, Filmmaker, Singer|Songwriter & a Mindset Coach who is passionate about social & serial entrepreneurship. He is the Founder/Curator of SoundArt On the Spot, a platform for creatives globally and for the Boundary Stitcher Workshops. He is also the CEO of Zaguruville Empire Concepts Limited.

He majored in Geology B Sc (2007) and Development Communications PGD (2015) at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.

In 2022, he bagged the GivingTuesday"s Starling Collective Fellowship as a recipient with support funds of $2000+. He is an award winner and a recipient of the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWiN!) program, grant of $60,000 (2011) and ProjectActNollywood (2014) grant of $40,000 alongside Nollywood Veterans, such as Kunle Afolayan (Anìkulàkpó) & Frankie Ogar (Soldier's Story) in (2014). He has been branded as one of the Arewa Creative Industry Ambassadors.

In 2016, he was also nominated for the African Youth Awards (AYA) for “Discovery of the Year” amongst other mainstream Artists such as Mr Eazi, Mark Angel, Teacher Mpamire and others from Africa.

He has created and directed a handful of films ranging from educational Shorts, Features, Series & Documentaries, as well as some musical singles. He"s worked as a Consultant, Facilitator, and Speaker to developmental projects by NGOs & Organizations in partnership with agencies; such as EU, UNICEF, Lola Cater For the Needy, Global Initiative for Women & Children (GIWAC) etc. He created and produced the acclaimed TV/Documentary show - 'The Wash Challenge' themed on WATSAN, an EU Inside Project.

His mission is to empower and inspire others to follow their DREAMS and live their best life. 

Joseph Kaifala

Joseph Ben Kaifala, ESQ. is an author and founder of Center for Memory and Reparation, Sierra Leone. Born in Sierra Leone, Joesph spent his early childhood in Liberia and Guinea. He later moved to Norway where he studied for the International Baccalaureate (IB) at the Red Cross Nordic United World College before enrolling at Skidmore College in upstate New York. Joseph was an International Affairs & French Major, with a minor in Law & Society.

Joseph is also a Human Rights activist, a Rastafarian, and a votary of ahimsa. He speaks six languages. He has served as a Davis United World College fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies; a Humanity In Action senior fellow; a Tom Lantos-HIA US Congressional fellow; a Chicago Council on Global Affairs Agricultural Development Initiative intern, and an intern at the Child and Adolescent Development Department of the World Health Organization in Geneva. 

He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, a Diploma in Intercultural Encounters from the Helsinki Summer School, and a Certificate in Professional French administered by the French Chamber of Commerce. Joseph was an Applied Human Rights fellow at Vermont Law School, where he completed his JD and Certificate in International & Comparative Law. He is recipient of the Skidmore College Palamountain Prose Award, Skidmore College Thoroughbred Award, Vermont Law School (SBA) Student Pro Bono Award, a 2013 American Society of International Law Helton fellow, and a member of 'Who Is Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges' in recognition of outstanding merit and accomplishments as a student at Vermont Law School. Joseph is a BBC World Service Outlook Inspirations Fifteen. As the the programme described it, these are "people who show us a better side of being human."

Joseph has written many books on Sierra Leonean history, as well as poetry and fiction. 

Umar Abubakar Sidi 

Umar Abubakar Sidi is a helicopter pilot with the Nigerian Navy. He attended the prestigious  Nigerian Military School, Zaria, and the Nigerian Defence Academy. Kaduna. He  is the author of the poetry collection - The Poet of Dust (Konya Shams Rumi,2019), Striking the Strings, and the Poetry Chapbook - The Poet of Sand (Saraba). Sidi's works is ,ajprly premised on the exploration of the body, soul and spirit from Sufi and surrealist perspectives. His works have appeared in Brittle Paper, Transition Magazine, Jalada, Saraba Magazine and elsewhere. 

Okpu Eze † 

Born in 1934 in Umuobiala-Isuikwuator, Okpu Eze remains one of Nigeria's respected  and accomplished artists who greatly inspired the modern art experience of the early post-independence era in Nigeria. He studied at the Technical Institute and Trade Centre, Enugu (1950-55), Westham Technical College and Trollope and Colls, London (1963-64) during which period he made many study visits to galleries and art institutions.

Between 1959 and 1964, he was known as a painter, and had  successful one-man exhibitions of his paintings which made him an artistic curiosity in the young art scene in Nigeria. The early eighties confirmed his professional activities as a sculptor, and the art world was awed at the forms and ideas he brought to life.

Okpu Eze"s artistic style was enriched with his knowledge of various novels or African literary criticism. The works of Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Aime Cesaire, Ben Enweonwu as well as some European art modernists served as structures which inspired his ideological, pictorial and stylistic altitude. Igbo Culture also played a huge role in the thematic and conceptual directions of his art.

His stylistic freedom took him beyond the shores of Nigeria as by 1963, he had travelled to globally notable museums and galleries, and had also met other notable artists. He was the first recipient of the prestigious Mbanefo trophy for art for Eastern Nigeria and held several exhibitions in Africa and Europe including the Festival of Negro Arts, Dakar, Senegal and the 269th exhibition of The Royal Society of British Artists at the Mall galleries, London in 1986, which led to his election as (ARBA) Associate member of the Royal Society of British Artists

Ulli Beier appreciated and considered him to be a surrealist, whereas Cyprian Ekwensi considered him ''a very honest artist'.

Okpu Eze was also an important art critic whose depth and vastness of knowledge of Nigerian visual art was evident in his writings in the Nigeria Magazine in the 1960’s.

Okpu Eze  passed away on  the 1st  of October 1995, whilst acting as the serving President of the Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA).

This virtual exhibition is a tribute to his legacy and contribution to the Nigerian modern art. It features  photographs of some of his sculpted  works and possibly Igbo artifacts  in his personal collection.

Ogechi Gabriel

Ogechi Gabriel is a visual artist and an art teacher who lives and works in Enugu, Nigeria. She is a graduate of the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) Enugu. She is inspired by the strength and experience of women. As a result, her artworks explore and captures  the black female experience. As an artist, Ogechi believes in the role of the imagination and symbolism from the traditional African culture and pop-culture in re-imagining the black woman as the gravitational force of the universe.

Ogechi has exhibited her artworks at public exhibitions in Nigeria.
In 2020, she exhibited at the Art.Voice.Power public exhibition for the awareness of  gender violence against women organised by Education  as Vaccine. In 2020 and 2021, she also exhibited at Colorcity Festival, Enugu. 

She also emerged Winner at the 2022 Eastern Nigeria International Film  Festival - Fan Art Movie Poster Design, and 2022 iSERVE2050 Creative Prize-Digital Art Category on Water as a Human Right. 

Her Solo virtual exhibition for CraterLitFest22 is titled 'Ike Nwanyi (Strength of a Woman).