This spotlight features Efua Oyofo. Efua is a Polymath: Creative and Cultural Storyteller, a lover for telling African stories that honour the truth of their rich, layered perspectives.

Efua primarily views herself as a storyteller with a passion for African stories, and by bringing together cultural storytelling and creativity, she hopes to encourage her clients to read more stories on African culture and preserving these historic story scripts.

Can you share a brief bio?

I am a polymath, cultural storyteller and multidisciplinary artist. My mission is to tell African stories that honor the truth of their rich, layered perspectives. I focus on different aspects of culture, including love, sensuality and relationships.

What time does your alarm go off?

My body alarm usually goes off anywhere between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m., depending on what the day says.

What do your mornings typically look like?

Great question. I’d like to say I spend time exercising and meditating, but that’s not always true. Typically I wake up, get right into work, or find a relaxing way to ease myself into working.

If I’m writing that day, I try to get all my writing materials, and essentially get myself in the writing head space. It’s extremely important to almost make this like a “creativity cocoon”.

How did you get on this career path? 

It found me, and wouldn’t leave me be. I started off doing work like this when I was in uni, engaging in cultural outreach. I started writing stories when I was a child; I remember winning an award for creative writing at age nine. I led a band, and sang in choir. And I loved reading.

Ultimately I think it’s about learning to balance all the parts of who you are, and letting them coexist symbiotically. When I started post-university, I went in between management consulting and strategic communications. In between those, I veered always went back to creative pursuits – jewellery-making, gemstone analysis, accessories design – but eventually, I learned how to blend the two sides of myself, the corporate and the creative.

In 2016 I launched Dating While Nigerian, a blog chronicling the misadventures of Nigerians trying to find love worldwide. This has since been transformed into This African Love, a site documenting how Black, Diaspora, and African people navigate love. I have been interviewed by publications ranging from Quartz to The Economist. My work has appeared in Bella Naija, Genevieve, TheWill Downtown, and I moderated a panel for Africa in Words (for the Edinburgh Literary Festival).

The latter is where I found my true love starting to assert itself. I enjoyed telling these stories – and, more to the point – I also wanted to tell other peoples’ stories.

Recently, I concluded a udamalore, my first-ever cultural study installation. Through it I examined and told stories of feminine agency through the lives of a number of women from ancient to contemporary times. This has been amazing. The reception was overwhelming, and the opportunity to tell these stories has honestly been a joy for me.

Tell us what a typical day looks like?

When I can manage it, Mondays are my least stressful days. This is because in my prior careers, Mondays were often full of meetings and time-consuming admin work. Instead, I spend that day a bit more gently.

Depending on where I’m working from, I decide what the day’s action blocks look like. Sometimes they involve coffee. Always, they involve water.

My notebook determines the trajectory of my day. I do a diagnostic of my goals – and from there, I decide what needs to be done. Am I working on my manuscript today? Am I taking meetings or doing interviews. Is this a research day?

When work is done, I find a way to unwind; balance is what makes life better.

Can you share some of your most memorable moments?

Of recent – having my installation. I felt ecstatic. It’s something I’d been planning for a long time. Seeing it come to life the way it did in my head, was wonderful.

The first time I hit “send” on a post.

Huge for me – finishing my first manuscript. That was amazing. An indescribable feeling.

I know I’ve said it already, but the day of my *udamalore* exhibition – that was wonderful. All I saw around me was collaboration, cooperation – people coming together to help achieve a greater purpose. Wonderful stuff.

Creativity can be like a kaleidoscope. A line may be more straightforward, but a kaleidoscope can have color and depth which, if utilized effectively, compliments the straight lines of life.

What do you love most about what you do?

Being able to tell these stories. Telling our stories honorably only helps enrich the tapestry of our lives.

What do you not like about what you do?

By nature of the beast, creativity is unpredictable. Euphoric highs and doldrum-esque – and one often has to be prepared to adapt to change a lot. The trajectory can’t always be envisaged – unlike the corporate side, which effectively has a more linear pathway.

So creativity can be like a kaleidoscope. A line may be more straightforward, but a kaleidoscope can have color and depth which, if utilized effectively, compliments the straight lines of life.

What do you do after work?
Eat, socialize, write, catch up on the real world outside of my screen and my thoughts.

And what do you do at the weekends?

Catch up on anything outstanding. I check in on myself – emotionally, physically, mentally.

Who in the creative industry (globally) inspires you and why?

Toni Morisson, Omar Victor,  Diop Odio O. of Odio Mimonet El Anatsui,  Multidisciplinary artists, Writers who make the page bleed with their writing.

This list is not exhaustive.

What does the societal change mean to you?

Honestly it’s a very vague phrase. It’s too macro in its meaning. To my understanding it’s better to talk about community change.

What does change mean as a movement? You don’t have every single part of your body all at once. Thus if we speak of it in the sense of affecting change within targeted spaces, then I’m all for it. Otherwise, I’ve yet to see it and look forward to witnessing this phenomenon.

In your opinion, how can the creative industries contribute to social change/social cohesion/improve the Nigerian society?

A lot more support for cultural heritage and storytelling opportunities. The system this far hasn’t been set up to allow for the creative sector to flourish sustain-ably.

To the specific question – Nigerian society needs to value creativity more. It has the ability to change lives. Imagine being able to communicate to somebody through film, through creatively-told stories, through ways and means that matter to them. If you can speak to people, you can change their world… and eventually, you can change ‘the’ world.

If you were not doing what you are doing now, what career path would you be on?

I’d be a talk show host. Or a sex anthropologist.