Ndubuisi Martins Aniemeka

Ndubuisi Martins Aniemeka is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory, Deparment of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures at Charles University, Prague. He earned a BA (Ed) Honours in English Education and MA in English, with emphasis on literature from both the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. His dissertation engages with the ties between the unconscious currents of poetry and the complex Anglophone world through the motif of the chameleon. With the Signifying Chameleon, he explores the interplay of unconscious currents and consciously derived English poetic techniques and postmodern forms to foreground how twenty-first century poetry is at once indigenous, hybrid, and transnational.

Drawing theoretical inspiration from Louis Gates’ Signifying Monkey, Aniemeka’s doctoral research adopts reflexive trope of the chameleon to produce a reading framework, which demonstrates how his concept of the signifying chameleon straddles Indigenous motifs, English poetic form, and postmodern currents for the analysis of twenty-first century Anglophone poetry,
using Marilyn Dumont (Metis/Canada) Niyi Osundare (Ekiti, Nigeria) and Lesego Rampolokeng as case studies. His research interests include, but are not limited to Cultural Theory, Anglophone Literatures, Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, Literature of the Black Diaspora, Environmental Humanities, Literature and Medicine, Autobiographical Studies, and Creative Writing. Literary critic and poetry theorist, Ndubuisi has contributed book chapters to edited books on African/ African Diasporic poetry, co-edited a collection of essays, and published academic articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Aniemeka has taught courses in English and literature at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, and McPherson University, Seriki-Sotayo, Ogun State, Nigeria. He has curated literary readings and conversations in Ibadan and elsewhere. For more than three years, he was Judge / Lead Judge in Christopher Okigbo Poetry Prize Competitions at the University of Ibadan. Also known by the pen name Ndubuisi Martins, he is the author of three collections of poetry, including One Call,
Many Answers (2017), and Answers through the Bramble (2021), which was longlisted for the 2022 Pan African Poetry Prize, (PAWA) the English category). With Shamsrumi Press, he published the bridging poetry gazelle, The Harmony of Lost Things while finalizing his forthcoming third collection of poems, Promenades. Martins, widely anthologized and critically acclaimed, has also served as co-editor of poetry anthologies and mentor in creative writing as well as given advisory supports for poetry anthologies and institutions.

Contact: ndubuisi_aniemeka (at) yahoo.com aniemekn@ff.cuni.cz

Selected Publications

Peer-Reviewed Papers

  • Aniemeka, Ndubuisi Martins. 2025. ‘“Mind-Worlding‟ and the Signifying Chameleon: Poetics of Reading Modern African Poetry”. Imbizo 16 (2): 1-24. https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6565/19290.
  • Aniemeka, Ndubuisi Martins. “Poetry as Migration: Orbiting Through Nigeria and America in Segun Adekoya’s Here and There”. Planeyo Journal of Arts and Humanities (PLANJAH). vol. 2, no. 4 (2025): 1-27. https://planjah.com/2025/09/02/poetry-as-migration-orbiting-through-nigeriaand-america-in-segun-adekoyas-here-and-there/
  • Aniemeka, Ndubuisi Martins. Literature With/in Nigeria‟s Historical Pluriverse: A Review of Nigerian Literary Imagination and the Nationhood Project in Ibadan Journal of Humanistics Studies. Volume 31.2021, pps 176-185, https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ibjhs/article/view/250081
  • Aniemeka, Ndubuisi Martins and Ayodele, Oluwatosin. Figuring National Disorder Through Domestic Disintegration In Chimamanda Adichie‟s Purple Hibiscus and Babatunde Omobowale‟s Seasons Of Rage. Ibadan Journal of Humanistic Studies, Volume. A Special Conference Edition. 25 (13) (2016) Pps. 177-189.
  • Aniemeka, Ndubuisi Martins. “Decentred or Interminable Presence? Utibe Hanson‟s Unnoticed Presence of Things.” (Forthcoming in Journal of Artistic Creation and Literary Research.)

Chapters in Edited Books

  • “Akin Bello‟s Flying Universe as Histopoetics” in Dissidence, Gender and Psychosocial Tempers in Contemporary Nigerian Poetry edited by Bartholomew Akpah, Thomas Michael EmekaChukwumezie (Forthcoming in DeGruyter Brill, Germany, 2026)
  • Aniemeka, Ndubuisi Martin “Migrant Memoir: Poetics and Politics of Nduka Otiono’s DisPlace” in Critical Perspectives on Nduka Otiono edited by Chris Dunton, Iroro Mathias Orhero, and Ndubuisi Martins Aniemeka. Austin: Pan African University Press, 2024.
  • Aniemeka, Ndubuisi Martins and Iroro Mathias Orhero. “Nduka Otiono: Orality, Poetics, and the Possible Worlds of a Bard of Many Colours” in Critical Perspectives on Nduka Otiono (Edited) Chris Dunton, Iroro Mathias Orhero, and Ndubuisi Martins Aniemeka. Austin: Pan African University Press, 2024.

Edited Book

  • Chris Dunton, Iroro Mathias Orhero, and Ndubuisi Martins Aniemeka Critical Perspectives on Nduka Otiono edited by Chris Dunton, Iroro Mathias Orhero, and Ndubuisi Martins Aniemeka. Austin: Pan African University Press, 2024.

Biographical Essay

  • Aniemeka, Ndubuisi Martins. “Mongane Wally Serote (1944–).” edited by Kwame Dawes. TwentyFirst Century African Poets, Gale, 2025. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Gale

Literary Reviews

  • Aniemeka Ndubuisi Martins “Forging Memories of Moments and Places” Olongo Africa. 29 May, 2025 https://olongoafrica.com/forging-memories-of-moments-and-places/
  • Aniemeka, Ndubuisi Martins. Amnesic Curse and the Poetics of a Verdant Reminder. Olongo Africa 4. January, 2023. https://olongoafrica.com/amnesic-curse-and-the-poetics-of-a-verdantreminder

Non-Fiction

  • “Prague, Before it Happened” in ArtisansQuills 16 July, 2025. https://artisansquill.com/2025/07/16/prague-before-it-happened/

PUBLICATION/IN PRESS (Creative Writing)

Published Collections of Poetry

  • Martins, Ndubuisi. Promenades (a poetry collection, forthcoming)
  • Martins, Ndubuisi. The Harmony of Lost Things, a poetry gazelle (Konya Shamsrumi Series, 2023)
  • Martins, Ndubuisi. Answers through the Bramble (A Collection of Poems) New Africa Book Publishers, 2021.
  • Martins, Ndubuisi. One Call, Many Answers (A Collection of Poems) Nigeria: Communicators League) 2017.

Edited Poetry Anthology

  • Remi Raji and Ndubuisi Martins Twenty-Two Voices for WPD 2022 (An E-Chapbook) Eds. (Ibadan: Noirledge Limited) https://www.noirledge.com/ Twenty-Two Voices for WPD 2022.

Invited Academic Talks

  • “Worlding” English and Literary Studies: The Whats and Hows of Graduate Scholarship Funding in Europe and North America in the Department of English of Chukwuma Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igboriam Anambra, Nigeria on the 18th of April 2024.
  • “Glocalization, Migration, and African Scholarship: The Japan Example” A Webinar by African Association for Japanese Studies (AAJS) on Saturday, 24th of February 2024, 17:00 WAT on Twitter Spaces.(Discussant)
  • “Graduate School Application and Experience in Europe: Perspectives from Graduate Students” June 17, 2025 at Lagos Studies Association Conference, which held in the University of Lagos, June 17-25 2025. Panelist (Virtual)
  • “Postcolonial Theory and Nigerian Literature: Context and Texts” Monday Forum, Department of English and American Studies, Palacky University, Olomouc, the Czech Republic. 27 February, 2023 (Invited Lecturer).
  • “The Art of Poetry: Creative Writing” A Poetry Craft Class for Undergraduates of Skyline
    University, Kano, Nigeria, 13 April, 2022 Via Microsoft Teams, (Guest Lecturer).

Selected Roundtable and Conference Presentations

  • “Author Meets Readers Critical Perspectives on Nduka Otiono” edited by Chris Dunton, Mathias Iroro Orhero, and Aniemeka Ndubuisi Martins (Pan-African University Press, 2024)” held on 20 June, 2025 at Lagos Studies Association Conference, which held in the University of Lagos, June 17-25 2025, Respondent (Virtual)
  • “Mbari and Mutation: Art, Act, and Action towards Signifying Chameleon of Africana Literature” 7th Annual Lagos Studies Association Conference Rethinking Decoloniality: African Decolonization and Epistemologies in the 21st Century June 20-24, University of Lagos, Nigeria. In-Person and Virtual (Panel Organiser and Paper Presenter).
  • “Animist Realism and Possible Worlds: Re-reading off Ben Okri’s The Famished Road” The Doctoral Seminar for the Hermes Consortium for Literary and Cultural Studies, Possible Worlds: Environment, Community, Heterotopia University of Siena Arezzo Campus, June 12-16, 2023 Viale Cittadini, 33 – Palazzina Donne, Room 3(Paper Presenter).
  • “Niyi Osundare’s Waiting Laughters and the Word is an Egg as Signifying Chameleon” 6th  Annual Lagos Studies Association Conference, Everyday Life in Africa: Past and Present Lagos/West-Central Africa Time) June 21-25. (Virtual Presenter).
  • “Aniemeka, N.M. Pain Poetics in Nigerian Poetry (2016 to 2021)” 47th Annual Meeting of the African Literature Association “Adversity and Creativity: African Literature, Film, Media and Public Discourse” May 18-21, 2022 Geneva, New York (Virtual).
  • “The Collective Unconscious and the Signifying Chameleon in Contemporary African American Poetry” at Hradec Králové Anglophone Conference, Faculty of Education, University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic 25 March, 2022 Hradec Králové Anglophone Conference 2022 (Paper Presenter).
  • “Strength in Weakness: Representations of Sickler’s Forte against Illness and Stigmatisation in Yinka Egbokhare’s Dazzling Mirage” (Post)colonial Health: Global Perspectives on the Medical Humanities Weetwood Hall, University of Leeds, United Kingdom, 20-21 June 2019 (Skype Presenter).
  • “Subtle Ironies: Poetics of (Auto) biographies and the Nigerian Condition”. One Day Conference on Toyin Falola’s In Praise of Greatness: The Poetics of African Adulation A Conference organised by Pan African Press University, University, America in conjunction with Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, Ibadan and Lead City University, Ibadan. January 9, 2019.(Panellist).

MEMBERSHIP

  • Czech Association for the Study of English (since 2025)
  • African Literature Association (since 2022)
  • Lagos Studies Association(since 2022)
  • Association of Nigerian Authors (Oyo Chapter)

SELECTED RECOGNITIONS/AWARDS

Faculty of Arts, Charles University’s Above-Standard Fulfilment of Study Obligations Scholarship (October 2023)
Longlisted for Pan African Writers’ Poetry Prize ( October, 2022)
English Studies Students’ Association of University of Nigeria Writer of the Year (September 2009)
Best Academic Performer 400 Level, English Studies Students Association (September 2009)

 

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