Celebrating Ndi-Igbo

  Innocent Chizaram Ilo is a writer who lives in Lagos. He was also the youngest-ever writer to be awarded the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. In 2020 he was announced as the regional winner for Africa of the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize for his short story “When a Woman Renounces Motherhood.” He was also a 2019 Author of Tomorrow and a Gerald Kraak Award finalist. Innocent has works published and forthcoming in Fireside Magazine, Reckoning, Strange Horizons, Cast of Wonders, Overland Magazine, Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, Brittle Paper, Transcendent 4: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction, SSDA ID Anthology, and elsewhere.  He is one to watch. Sources: Grantna, Brittle Paper.

  Kosisochukwu 'Kay' Ugwuede is a nonfiction writer, tech journalist and photographer living in Lagos, Nigeria. Whether writing about books, culture, food, politics, religion or travel, Kay's work explores the intimacies of human interaction and questions the intangibles that drive our actions big and small. Her writing has been exhibited in Bamako, Cologne and Dhaka as part of the Invisible Borders Trans-African Photography Organization's road trip projects. She is the author of A Substance of Things Unseen, a travel chapbook published by the Invisible Borders Trans-African Photography Organization. As a tech journalist, Kay covers technology development across Africa paying particular attention to the small way technology is impacting and changing the way we live, work and interact. She is also adept at profiling players in the space in an insightful manner that explores their journey in the industry while providing valuable insights about the broader sectors within w

  Onyinyechi Zogg is a footballer who plays for FC Zurich and the Super Falcons of Nigeria.  Onyi was born on March 3rd, 1997 in Bern. At the age of 6 she discovered her passion for athletics. She contested IN several competitions in various disciplines (including high jump, hurdles and 60-meter sprint) and was named "Schnäustä Bärner Modi" several times. At the age of 11, she accompanied her colleague “Temi” to soccer training. "Dani", the then FC Bethlehem junior coach, discovered her talent immediately and tried several times to convince her to play football.  For a year she trained in both football and athletics clubs until the effort became too great. Onyi had to make a decision. She decided not against athletics but for football.  Onyi  has been with FC Zurich since 2019 after previous stint at BSC Young Boys, Monroe College, Femina Kickers Worb and FC Bethlehem. Sources: die-11.ch, playmakterstats dot com

  Jared Erondu is a man of many talents. First and foremost, he is a designer, but he is also a startup advisor, a prolific writer and a talented photographer. He has managed to uniquely set himself apart in the design and tech industries, starting with his role as creative director during the early days of Teespring. He has worked with companies like MIT, Sparrow Mail, Omada Health, Treehouse and Y Combinator, just to name a few. Jared has served as a mentor to some of the most prestigious venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners. He is wrapping up the building of a design community tool called Playbook. The one place for all the best design thinking, Playbook organizes meaningful questions from the design community, also giving designers a simple way to respond. He is currently the VP of design at Lattice.  Sources: Techie Projects

Ifeoma Ozoma, the founder and principal of Earthseed, a consulting firm supporting individuals, organizations and companies on issues relating to tech accountability, public policy, health misinformation and related communications. Ozoma is a tech policy expert with experience leading global public policy partnerships, public policy related content safety development, and U.S. federal, state, and international policymaker engagement at Pinterest, Facebook, and Google. Her health misinformation initiatives have been lauded by the World Health Organization, The Washington Post’s editorial board and The New York Times. Ozoma received the Healthy Corporate Citizen Award for extraordinary commitment to addressing the determinants of health from the Public Health Association of British Columbia in 2019.  Ifeoma attended Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut and Yale University, where she specialized in political science and the Fourth Amendment. She also serves on the board of First Draft News