Tanure Ojaide

Tanure Ojaide (born 1948) is a prolific Nigerian poet and writer. He is noted for his unique stylistic vision and for his intense criticism of imperialism, religion, and other issues. He is regarded as a socio-political and ecocritical poet.

Tanure Ojaide was born to Urhobo parents from Okpara Inland in Agbon Kingdom of Delta State. He attended the secondary school at Obinomba and Federal Government College, Warri, before proceeding to the University of Ibadan for his degree program in English. He attended Syracuse University for his M.A. in Creative Writing and PhD in English. He later taught at the University of Maiduguri before his appointment as Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has been a visiting scholar and has taught at several universities across the world including Delta State University, Abraka and Kwara State University, Malete. His poetry is widely read and he is known for his infusion of Urhobo folklore and Udje aesthetics in his poetry.

Ojaide has won major national and international poetry awards, including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for the Africa Region (1987), the BBC Arts and Africa Poetry Award (1988), the All-Africa Okigbo Prize for Poetry (1988 and 1997), the Association of Nigerian Authors' Poetry Prize (1988 and 1994) and the Fonlon-Nichols Award. In 2016, Ojaide won the Nigerian National Order of Merit award, the apex and the most important award for scholastic excellence in Nigeria.

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