Dele Olojede (born 1961 in Modakeke , Nigeria
He is a Nigerian journalist and former
foreign editor for Newsday . Olojede was the first African-born winner of the Pulitzer Prize
and he is a patron of the Etisalat Prize for Literature
Dele Olojede was born the eleventh of 28 children. In 1982, he began his journalism career at the
National Concord in Lagos, a newspaper
owned by aspiring political figure Moshood Abiola . Olojede left the paper in 1984 after he became concerned that Abiola was using the
paper to advance his personal political
ambitions.
Olojede enrolled at the University of Lagos where he studied journalism. As a student he
was particularly influenced by Nigerian literary luminaries like Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka
and Cyprian Ekwensi and other African writers like Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o .
Olojede became one of the founding staff writers of a Nigerian news magazine called
Newswatch in 1984. The magazine was edited by Dele Giwa , a well-known Nigerian journalist
who was killed by a mail bomb on 19 October
1986. Olojede publicly accused Nigeria's
military leader Ibrahim 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.
