Pelu Awofeso is a Nigerian journalist, travel and culture writer, based in

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

, Nigeria. He is a winner of the CNN/Multichoice African Journalists Awards in the Tourism Category. He is often described as "Nigerian foremost travel writer." He is also a published author.

Career

Awofeso claims to have become interested in travelling after a first encounter with the city of

Jos Jos is a city in the North-Central region of Nigeria. The city has a population of about 900,000 residents based on the 2006 census. Popularly called "J-Town", it is the administrative capital and largest city of Plateau State. The city is situ ...

Plateau State Plateau is a northern states of Nigeria, Nigerian state. It is located in the north-central geopolitical zone of Nigeria and includes a range of hills surrounding the Jos Plateau. Plateau State is described as "The Home of Peace and Tourism". Th ...

of Nigeria in 1998. The encounter, which involved being awed by the beauty of the city as well as coming across "writing from the past by the British" who documented their travels during the times they lived in Nigeria as colonialists, inspired him to take up travel as a hobby. , he has visited over 32 states out of Nigeria's 36 and written about a number of them. His work has been compared to ''

Looking for Transwonderland ''Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria'' is a 2012 non-fiction memoir and travelogue by Noo Saro-Wiwa. In it Saro-Wiwa travels across Nigeria, re-discovering the country of her birth. The book has been compared to those of many other ...

'' by Noo-Saro-Wiwa. In 2010, while he worked for ''234Next'', Awofeso won the

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

MultiChoice MultiChoice is a South Africa, South African company that operates DStv, a major satellite television service in Sub-Saharan Africa. The company also operates GOtv Africa, GOtv, a minor satellite TV service operating in 9 countries, and Showmax, ...

African Journalist of the Year Award in the Tourism Category.

Books and publishing

Awofeso is the publisher of an online travel magazine called ''Waka About''. He is also the editor of ''Route 234'', a book of travel stories described as "a collection of stories from Nigerian journalists detailing personal experiences while on journeys outside Nigeria" What it represents, "overall, is an intervention in a space where much more effort of this nature is needed." In 2010, he published ''Tour of Duty,'' a book "which documents ten months travelling the width and breadth of Nigeria, and tells the stories of people and places he encounters on the way, from the sand sellers of Yenagoa to hunters in Osogbo."

Other activities

Awofeso, in 2014, also founded a group called "Beach Samaritans" who walk around beaches in Lagos for the purpose of cleaning them of debris and unwanted trash.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Awofeso, Pelu Yoruba journalists Year of birth missing Nigerian bloggers Nigerian journalists Yoruba-language writers 21st-century Nigerian writers