Poet, festival administrator
and freelance journalist.
Samuel Osaze started off as a socially inclined Nigerian poet but had a paradigm shift sometime in 2014 when he learnt to focus more on the need to archive the cultural heritage of the Esan minority ethnic group of Edo state, Nigeria.
His collection of poems, Aroma of a Burning Bush (2014), received rave reviews in national dallies and was published in POETRY REPAIRS – a US-based poetry journal. The collection explores a wide range of contemporary issues, importantly, serving as bastion for the cultural heritage of the Esan people who are an ethnic minority in Southern Nigeria. Professor Emezue says ABB “is a passionate rendition of words and feelings, evoking traditional home with words and images that move emotions”. Currently, Osaze is working on a collection of Esan folktales, myths and fables to be written in English.
Samuel’s Residency at Salamanca Arts Centre in August 2019 was part of the First Nations Residency Program.
Image Credits:
Photograph by Gbenga Olanrewaju.
Photograph by Babatunde Adeniyi.