The Open Society Foundations today announced the names of African intellectuals who were selected for the $120,000 Open Society Fellowship for the Global South. They are part of a group of thirty-one public intellectuals from seven cities in the Global South, who will serve as Open Society Fellows in 2025-26.
The fellowship will support a global cohort of public intellectuals, with the explicit aim of directing attention and resources to diverse and emerging voices, particularly those outside the West and in places and communities that have often been overlooked.
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The fellows were drawn from cities that are home to a dynamic circle of thinkers and cultural producers engaged in high-level critical debate. The cities are Beirut, Buenos Aires, Colombo, Dar es Salaam, Jakarta, Lagos, and Taipei.
Nigerian intellectuals from the worlds of academia and art will benefit from grants to continue their pursuit of restless critical thought. They include publisher Anwuli Ojogwu, educator Sa’eed Husaini, architect Tosin Oshinowo and visual artist Victor Ehikhamenor.
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“We’re in the midst of momentous changes around the world – changes that are unsettling our assumptions and forcing us to revisit them. The bold ideas and energy that this global fellowship brings is not just important, but crucial in this moment,” said Binaifer Nowrojee, president of the Open Society Foundations. “The Open Society Fellowship has a special place in the work of the foundations and these fellows will help shape global conversations on the most pressing issues of our time – from human rights and social justice to climate change and inequality.”
Fellows were selected by a distinguished panel of external reviewers for their heterodoxy and openness to new approaches and vigorous debate, ensuring that Open Society remains true to a vision of restless critical thought. Fellows each receive a grant of $120,000. They meet several times in person and join a network of colleagues committed to collaboration, debate, shared learning, and social impact.
“The Open Society Fellowship is committed to supporting public intellectuals in cities that act as crucibles of critical debate and cultural experimentation. We hope to enable public intellectuals in those places to take their rightful place on the global stage and link their work to the broader goal of advancing open society,” said Fellowship Director Stephen Hubbell.
Fellows from Nigeria include:
Anwuli Ojogwu
Anwuli Ojogwu is a publisher, editor, and co-founder of Narrative Landscape Press, an independent company that has published acclaimed African and Caribbean writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Chibundo Onuzo, Yejide Kilanko, Uche Okonkwo Marlon James, and Lupita Nyong’o. Narrative Landscape Press expanded its reach by opening a new branch in East Africa.
She has worked in publishing, media, development, and management consulting in the private, nonprofit, and public sectors for 18 years. She is also the executive director and co-founder of the Society for Book & Magazine Editors of Nigeria, a nonprofit that supports publishing and editorial professional development. She currently sits on the board of trustees of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers (Lagos Hub) and advisory board of Open Country Mag, a leading media company.
She received her BA in English and Literature from the University of Benin. Her current project explores the current state of African literature and the impact of rising intellectual apathy, migration, and democratic erosion on future narratives across the continent.
Sa’eed Husaini (Nigeria)
Sa’eed Husaini is a researcher, organizer, and educator. He is currently a research fellow at the Center for Democracy and Development in Abuja, where he leads a project to digitise the family-held archives of Nigerian left and pro-democracy activists from the 1940s to the 1990s.
His research examines how the economic and political transition at the end of the 20th century remapped the ideological spectrum in Nigeria. His wider work is animated by an interest in examining how elite and popular political ideas about capitalism and democracy intersect to shape the practices of organising, coercion, and governance in contemporary Africa.
He holds a DPhil in International Development from the University of Oxford and was a 2023 Fellow of the African Humanities Program, supported by the American Council for Learned Societies. He has previously held research and teaching positions at the Universities of Oxford, Lagos, and Ghana.
His current project compares right-wing social movements in Nigeria and the US Midwest, focusing on the effect of local political participation on national politics.
Tosin Oshinowo (Nigeria)
Tosin Oshinowo is an architect, designer, curator, and the principal and founder of Oshinowo Studio. She has worked on civic, commercial, and residential projects throughout Nigeria and is renowned for her socially responsive approach to architecture, design, and urbanism. Her work demonstrates a strong interest in architectural history while embodying a contemporary perspective on African design and innovation. She has been featured in international media, including Architectural Digest and Deutsche Welle. Her designs include a project with the United Nations Development Programme for a village displaced by Boko Haram, and the Maryland Mall in Lagos.
Her curatorial work focuses primarily on concerns of culture and identity, embodying a contemporary perspective of urbanism in the global South. She co-curated the second Lagos Biennial and the second Sharjah Architecture Triennial. She will participate in the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale with her project: “An Alternative Urbanism: Self-organising Lagos Markets.”
She has a BA in Architecture from Kingston University London, an MSc in Development and Planning: Building and Urban Design in Development from the University College London, and a Masters in Business for Architecture and Design from IE University Madrid. She is a 2025 Harvard Loeb Fellow at the Graduate School of Design.
Victor Ehikhamenor (Nigeria)
Victor Ehikhamenor is a multidisciplinary visual artist and writer known for vibrant and incisive works that engage with African cultural heritage, its resonance within the global African diaspora, and the postcolonial politics of his native Nigeria. Using materials and iconography that embrace the traditions and histories of Africa while integrating elements that allude to the continent’s colonial past and Nigeria’s complex geopolitical position as an oil-producing nation, he offers insight into contemporary Nigeria.
His art has been exhibited around the world, including at the first Nigerian Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale. As a writer and photographer, his work has chronicled life, addressed political corruption, and Africa’s role in global politics. He has published critical essays, short stories, articles in international media (including the New York Times) and a satirical nonfiction book Excuse Me!. He is the founder of Angels and Muse, a thought laboratory dedicated to the promotion and development of contemporary African art and literature in Lagos and Benin City, Nigeria. He received a BA in English from Ambrose Ali University and an MSc in Technology Management and MFA in Fiction from the University of Maryland, College Park.
His current project explores the aesthetics of Edo State, Nigeria’s commemorative sites, unveiling the significance of traditional inscriptions and the link between culture and nature in African indigenous systems.
