The Dualities of Nduka Otiono

Nduka Otiono, the Graduate Program Supervisor at Carleton University’s Institute of African Studies (IAS), sees duality in almost all that he does.

He is both a researcher and a creative writer, a cultural activist and a critic. Sometimes he writes in prose and sometimes in poetry. He is Nigerian and his perspective is also Canadian. And it’s no accident that he’s cross-appointed to Carleton’s Department of English and the School of Journalism and Communication.

“I think of all these things as tributaries,” he says.

“All these branches of a river, flowing into one main stream, reflect the work that I do as a creative writer, as a scholar, as an educator.”

Otiono was a journalist in Lagos for 15 years before he moved to Canada in 2006 to pursue a PhD in English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. He received a BA and an MA in English language and letters from the University of Ibadan, and wrote award-winning fiction while also serving as general secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and editor of the literary journal The Post Express Literary Supplement.