Writer

Creative non fiction

Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in England and Africa, is is an exploration of identity and race, nominated for an Orwell Prize in 2006

The Stranger is structured around the stories of several remarkable figures, from the 19th to 21st century and will set out an exploration of Black male identity and experience. Hamish Hamilton will publish The Stranger in 2024.

Soon Comes Night, is an essay published in Granta and printed in The Observer, in which Eshun explores the impact of race and discrimination on the psyche.

Cultural commentary

Ekow delivers insightful analysis of complex issues of culture, art and identity for internationally recognised publications including the New York Times, the Financial Times and The Guardian, and is a Contributing Editor at Wallpaper.

From his early days as the Assistant Editor of iconic style magazine, The Face, and then editor of Arena men’s magazine, Ekow has consistently delivered influential thought pieces exploring style, masculinity, race and the changing face of modern culture. He has interviewed iconic figures from Prince and Bjork to Neneh Cherry and Hilary Mantel.

Art books

In the Black Fantastic

In the Black Fantastic assembles art and imagery from across the African diaspora that embraces ideas of the mythic and the speculative. It looks at how speculative fictions in Black art and culture are boldly reimagining perspectives on race, gender, identity and the body in the 21st century.

Africa State of Mind

Africa State of Mind is a mesmerizing, continent-spanning survey of the most dynamic scenes in contemporary African photography in four thematic parts: Hybrid Cities; Inner Landscapes; Zones of Freedom; and Myth and Memory.

Selected essays

  • “I Suck at Love”: Nas, Jay-Z and Black Male Vulnerability, The Culture: Hip Hop & Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, Baltimore Museum of Art, 2023

  • The New African Portraiture, The New African Portraiture: Shariat Collections, Walther & Franz König, 2023

  • The Hybrid of it all: The Making of Black British Style, Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear, V&A, 2022

  • A Conversation between Campbell Addy and Ekow Eshun, Feeling Seen: The Photographs of Campbell Addy, Prestel, 2022

  • Why do we March? Joy Gerrard’s Exhilarating Bodies in Motion, Joy Gerrard: Precarious Freedom: Crowds, Flags, Barriers, Highlanes Gallery, 2022

  • Acts of Rememory, Mark Bradford: Agora, Serralves, 2021

  • Portmanteau Biota, Hurvin Anderson: Reverb, Thomas Dane, 2021

  • Masterless People: The Free Republic of Raphaël Barontini, Raphaël Barontini, Marianne Ibrahim Publications, 2021

  • Black is Ours, Amoako Boafo, Marianne Ibrahim Publications, 2021