UGA's Obioma among 100 Most Influential Africans

University of Georgia faculty member Chigozie Obioma was recently honored by New Africa Magazine in its list of the most influential Africans of 2024.

Obioma, Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of English, is a native of Akure, Nigeria. His two novels, The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019) were finalists for The Booker Prize and have been translated into 30 languages.

Winner of an LA Times book prize, the prestigious Internationaler Literaturpris, FT/Oppenheimer prize for fiction, and an NAACP Image award, his work has been featured in the literary and popular press around the world.

His 2024 novel The Road to the Country, a novel about the Nigerian Civil War, published in June. He joined the UGA faculty in August 2024.

New Africa Magazine recognized Obioma's broad impact among creative artists worldwide:

Predicted as “truly the heir to Chinua Achebe” by the New York Times and “one of the most exciting voices of modern African literature” by the Financial Times, Obioma has already joined the heady ranks of Africa’s finest authors. Of Igbo descent and raised in a family of 12 children, he grew up with a fascination for Greek myths, British Classics and African works such as those of Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka.

Congratulations to our colleague on this important recognition of his outstanding achievements.