Nwelue, Hundeyin Dismissed From Oxford Apologises For Alleged Misogyny At ‘Fraudulent’ Book Launch

Onyeka Nwelue, a Nigerian author, has had his Academic Visitor status at Oxford University terminated after misusing University logos and premises for commercial purposes, an investigation by Cherwell has found.

Nwelue is also facing complaints of misogyny towards students and the spread of racist, classist, and sexist content online.

Nwelue, a self-published author and filmmaker, held Academic Visitor status at Oxford’s African Studies Centre from Michaelmas 2021, until its removal in early February this year.

According to Cherwell, he represented himself as a professor at both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, but has been unable to provide his evidence of an academic PhD.

He was not credited as a professor by either institution in the course of his associations with them, and Oxford confirmed to Cherwell that he has never been a professor at the university.

This week, the University of Cambridge also informed the news agency that Nwelue’s connections with Cambridge have been terminated following investigations into his conduct.

On 31st January 2023, Nwelue’s Instagram bio described him as “Prof of African Studies & Academic Visitor at University of Oxford & University of Cambridge” and on 1st February 2023, his Twitter bio said “Professor + Academic Visitor”, tagging the accounts of both universities.

He also tweeted:

“I am a university professor, attached to two of the top best universities in the world”, along with many other tweets where he referred to himself as a professor.

However, when asked to clarify his academic affiliations in light of this, Nwelue told Cherwell:

“I have never ever posed as a professor at Oxford and Cambridge. My card says I am an Academic Visitor and that is exactly what I tell people. The accusation that I say I am a professor at Oxford is baseless.”

The Tweets

During his time as an Academic Visitor at Oxford, Nwelue posted content on Twitter which was racist, classist, and misogynistic.

These include Tweets where he stated:

“being raised in a poor family chains you mentally to be stupid.”; “no poor person has any value”; “African women look like masquerades when they wear wigs and make up”; “Arabs are known to relish slavery and servitude”; China “is poor, filthy (smells a lot!) and overpopulated”; “Eastern Europeans…only produce pick-pockets and scammers”.

When asked about these tweets, Nwelue told Cherwell: “It was a social experiment to get feedback for a book I was working on. Apologies that they came off wrongly.”

He denied being racist, misogynist, or classist.

Meanwhile, the 2023 holder of the James Currey Fellowship at Cambridge was David Hundeyin, who maintains a controversial social media presence and has been a significant supporter of populist politician Peter Obi in this week’s Nigerian elections.

Cambridge told Cherwell:

“Onyeka Nwelue and David Hundeyin are no longer associated with the University of Cambridge. Their connections were terminated following an investigation into their conduct”.

They added: “The James Currey Fellowship is not administered, awarded, or funded by the University of Cambridge.”

The book launch

On 31st January, Nwelue and Hundeyin ran a book launch together on Oxford University premises for Hundeyin’s most recent book, also published with Abibiman Publishers.

This was marketed through the James Currey Society and tickets were priced at £20 for Oxford students.

One attendee told Cherwell:

“I signed up to attend the event, and was surprised I had to pay £20 to attend. Events run by the African Studies Centre are usually free as they are catering towards students.”

In addition to charging £20 for entry, copies of Hundeyin’s book were also on sale for a further £20 at the event.

The book launch was originally advertised as taking place in the African Studies Centre, but the location was changed at short notice to a room in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages at Wellington Square.

Attendees of the event told Cherwell that misogynistic remarks made by its organisers and other audience members made them feel “incredibly uncomfortable”.

One student said: “Explicitly sexist comments were made throughout by the speaker and audience which were not challenged and were in fact encouraged. … Comments made suggested that women slept their way to the top, which oppressed men, and that marrying a woman held you back in life”.

Another student added:

“A key point of concern occurred when a question was asked by an attendee to Hundeyin concerning the issue of sexism and sexual harassment that African female journalists endure. Hundeyin replied with the implication that women who were of a fair complexion, tall and had long legs would not face hurdles to their career advancement in journalism.”