Dele Olojede | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1961 (age 63–64) Modakeke, Nigeria |
| Occupation | Journalist and former foreign editor forNewsday |
| Nationality | Nigerian |
| Education | University of Lagos |
| Alma mater | Columbia University |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize |
Dele Olojede (born 1961)[1][2] is a Nigerian journalist and former foreign editor forNewsday. He is the first African-born winner of thePulitzer Prize in International Journalism for his work covering the aftermath of theRwandan genocide. He serves on the board ofEARTH University, in Costa Rica, and ofThe Markup, theNew York-based investigative journalism organization focused on the impact of large tech platforms and their potential for human manipulation. He is the founder and host of Africa In the World, a hearts and minds festival held annually inStellenbosch, in the Cape winelands of South Africa. He was a patron of theEtisalat Prize for Literature.[3]
Olojede was born in January 1961 inModakeke,Nigeria.[1] He was the 12th of 28 children. In 1982, he began his journalism career at theNational Concord inLagos, a newspaper owned by aspiring political figureMoshood Abiola. Olojede left the paper in 1984 after he became concerned that Abiola was using the paper to advance his personal political ambitions.[4]
Olojede enrolled at theUniversity of Lagos, where he studied journalism, and became a leader of the students' union movement. As a student, he was particularly influenced by Nigerian literary luminaries such asChinua Achebe,Wole Soyinka andCyprian Ekwensi, and other African writers includingNgũgĩ wa Thiong'o. He also acted inShakespeare plays in grade school and dabbled in poetry inYoruba and English.[2]
Olojede became one of the founding staff writers of a Nigerian news magazine calledNewswatch in 1984. The magazine was edited byDele Giwa, a well-known Nigerian journalist, who was killed by amail bomb on 19 October 1986. Olojede publicly accused Nigeria's military leaderIbrahim Babangida of being responsible for the murder. In 2001, eight years after leaving power, Babangida refused to testify before a human rights court about the murder.[4]
A 1986 investigative report by Olojede on the imprisonment of the popular Nigerian musicianFela Kuti led to Kuti's release and the dismissal of the judge who imprisoned him. In 1987, Olojede's efforts earned him aUS$26,000Ford Foundation Scholars grant, which Olojede used to get a master's degree atColumbia University. At Columbia, he won the Henry N. Taylor Award for outstanding foreign student.[1] Olojede eventually became a US-Nigeria dual citizen.[5]
On 6 June 1988, Olojede joinedNewsday, theLong Island-based newspaper, first as a summer intern and later as a reporter covering local news, including a stint inthe Hamptons, on the East End ofLong Island. He eventually became United Nations Correspondent, a perch from which he began to cover Africa, making several extended trips to the continent. He was subsequently named Africa Correspondent, based inJohannesburg, South Africa, following the release ofNelson Mandela from prison.
Olojede later worked as a correspondent in China from 1996 to 1999, after being named Asia Bureau Chief, based inBeijing. His reporting took him to all but a handful of Asia countries. Following his assignment in Asia, he returned to Long Island, where he became foreign editor ofNewsday. In January 2004, Olojede took an opportunity to return to Africa as a correspondent to write about the 1994Rwandan genocide, ten years later.[5]
In April 1994, when the genocide broke out in Rwanda, Olojede had been covering theSouth African general elections, the first free elections at the end ofapartheid. He has said that, while the South Africa story was important, he has often wondered whether he could have helped the situation in Rwanda had he gone there instead.[6][7]
Olojede's 2004 series on the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide was well received. One story that drew particular attention was "Genocide's Child" about a mother who was raising a son conceived during a gang rape during the war.[6]
In 2005, Olojede won thePulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his "fresh, haunting look at Rwanda a decade after rape and genocidal slaughter had ravaged theTutsi tribe". The series was viewed as a major accomplishment for black journalists. Olojede was assisted by African-American photographer J. Conrad Williams, and much of the series was edited by Lonnie Isabel, another African-American journalist, who was the assistant managing editor for national and foreign coverage.[5]
By the time Olojede won the Pulitzer, he had already leftNewsday. TheTribune Company had purchasedNewsday from its previous owners in 2000, and by 2004 were trying to trim costs. At the end of 2004,Newsday offered a round of buyouts. On 10 December 2004, Olojede took the buyout and moved toJohannesburg, where he was living when he learned he had won the Pulitzer Prize.[5]
As of 2006, Olojede was living in Johannesburg with his wife and two daughters. In November 2006, theEast African Standard reported that Olojede was hoping to launch a daily newspaper that would be distributed across the entire African continent.[2]
Returning to Nigeria, Olojede launchedNEXT in 2008, first onTwitter and then online and in print. Hiring 80 new journalists fresh out of college and working out of a diesel-powered 24-hour newsroom,NEXT worked to expose government corruption in the face of much resistance.[8] Most famously,NEXT published the story that the presidentUmaru Yar'Adua was brain dead and not "returning soon from a Saudi hospital" as promised.[9]
In 2011, Dele Olojede won the John P. McNulty Prize,[10] which was established by Fellows of theAspen Institute to reward the most innovative projects driving social change.[11] The prize was awarded for Olojede's vision and efforts in creatingNEXT in Nigeria.[12]
Under Olojede,NEXT paid its journalists a living wage, opposing the usual local practice of politicians paying journalists and expecting only favourable coverage in return. It scooped many stories of public interest, but found that advertisers would no longer support it. When it collapsed in 2011, it owed its staff more than five months' wages.[13]
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Olojede has won several journalism awards.[1]
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