Eromo Egbejule

The truth is a cube balanced on one side, according to Eromo Egbejule, and it’s his job as a journalist to show people its other sides. That philosophy of looking past the easily apparent has shaped his lifework, with his journalism appearing everywhere from The Guardian and Reuters to The Financial Times and Washington Post. One could also argue that a multifaceted prism is a reflection of his own varied interests, from dabbling in coding and graphics work as a teenager to graduating with an engineering degree from the University of Nigeria, before breaking through as a journalist covering the cultural impacts of Boko Haram’s terrorism in West Africa. In 2016, Eromo won the PwC Journalist of the Year for SME Reporting, and in 2017, he was awarded the Future Awards Africa Prize for Journalism award.

What didn’t change, even as his professional interests shifted, was a love for storytelling rooted in his parents, who were schoolteachers, and his genealogy (he is from the oil-rich Niger Delta region whose ethnicities are also known nationally for their storytelling and love for colorful metaphor in everyday life).

As OZY’s new Africa Editor, Eromo is excited about the opportunity to introduce the world to the continent in new and surprising ways. He compares his storytelling to that of hunted animals who, throughout much of human history, have previously only been described through the eyes of the hunter. “Now we’re bringing in a pack of lions to tell their stories themselves,” he says.

Like we said, metaphor runs in his blood.