Marcus Okafor

Marcus Okafor is a foreign correspondent and culture writer who has reported from four continents, three conflict zones, and one press conference that he maintains was more dangerous than the conflict zones. Born and raised in Lagos, educated elsewhere, and currently based somewhere that changes depending on who's asking, Marcus has built a career on the conviction that the most important stories are the ones being told in the wrong language to the wrong audience. He has spent the last decade attempting to fix this, with mixed but interesting results. His reporting on media, identity, and the economics of attention has appeared in publications with strong opinions about their own importance. He has won recognition from two industry bodies and been politely uninvited from one press trip, for reasons that remain officially unspecified. At The Pressive, Marcus covers the intersection of journalism, technology, and the slow, unglamorous work of getting things right — which he argues is underrated as a beat. Marcus has been working on a book for the better part of two decades — a fact well documented by his wife, his colleagues, and at least three friends who have stopped asking. The title has changed eleven times. The current title is What We Meant When We Said Progress. The previous title was The Boom Floor. Before that, Just Listen. He considers the titling process part of the research and he's very proud to share the new title when he finds one.