Born in the oil-rich but economically impoverished Niger Delta area of Nigeria, Ojaide was raised by his grandmother in a riverine rural environment. He attended a Catholic Grammar School and Federal Government College, Warri. Ojaide was educated at the University of Ibadan, where he received a bachelor's degree in English, and Syracuse University, where he received both the M.A. in Creative Writing and Ph.D. in English.
Areas of Specialization:
- African Culture and Literature;
- African Poetry; Pan-African/Black Literatures;
- Caribbean Literature;
- Non-Western & Postcolonial Literatures;
- Folklore and Oral Literatures of Africa and the African Diaspora;