Urowoli Hazel Kimberly Tesigiwa Oburoh

Urowoli Hazel Kimberly Tesigiwa Oburoh (born March 6, 1999), known professionally as Roli Hazel, is a Nigerian author, predominantly fiction writer. She is drawn especially to art and has an intense love for literature
She majors in prose, history, historical fiction and poetry. Her reading influence extends to over 1.3 Billion people. She achieved a one billion online sale on August 10th, 2021 through an online campaign and partnership. In February 2022, she reportedly garnered 300 million online readers.
At 22, she had 14 published books, mostly novels. On June 19, 2021, she published her books At the Crack of Dawn, A compilation of essays, Research work on Human Trafficking, Life Hack, Compilation of poetry, Menorah, #they don't really care, For Her and The rule of Bastards, on the same day. Her books I Love you - God, History Digest, Salient point on Crs and At the Crack of Dawn, ( a 715 page novel) have been approved for all schools in Nigeria by the Ministry of Education. Her book A penny for a tale published September 3rd, 2021 has been translated to over 15 languages including modern Chinese language and Traditional Chinese Language and received a 4.5 star rating on Amazon.
Early life
Roli Hazel Oburoh, was born on March 6, 1999 in Nigeria. Her interest in her craft started at an early age. She was an early reader and an early writer. She attended the primary school Lydia Group of Schools and at six-years-old was already In primary four. She read a lot of African Fiction books like Chike and the River by Chinue Achebe, He who laughs Last by Victor Oguejiofor, a lot of Enid Blyton and any prose she found in English readers.
At eight-years-old, she gained admission into one of the most prestigious secondary schools in Nigeria, Presentation National High School, which school fees is reportedly over half a million Naira. Her love for literature and art in general was greatly intensified by the environment being a boarding school and an all girls institution. There, she engaged in lots of art related activities. She started writing her first book, a drama, at ten-years-old. She also wrote numerous fictions and books that were scarcely completed. She learnt how to play the keyboard and wrote two songs at the age of twelve, one of which included very detailed rap lyrics. She often engaged in literature related games like making sentences with each letter of the Alphabet and continuing conversations with words and would often at with school friends making songs and rap. She was good in the subject literature and could answer fluently any question In literature including genre, dates, structure with regard to poetry, forms and classification. She always scored the highest scores in Essay writing, English Language.
On a school trip to Togo and Cotonou which influenced her love for art, she learnt various french songs. At the age of thirteen, she was choosen as one of the contestants for the Miss Presco beauty pageantry 2012/2013, for which only the finest girls were always picked. She was only disqualified at the question stage because of a question based on her local dialect (itsekeri). She also engaged in one of the most spectacular activity for the school biggest social night, celebrity impersonation. She "Impersonated" Mercy Johnson to the song "Aboki, the remixed version by Ice Prince and other artist, for which there were other impersonations as well for the other artists. She described it as her first celebrity moment, being escorted by ushers and waived all through the night.
At the age of fourteen, she started to focus mostly on writing and take it more seriously. She started her blog, completely hand written and passed across physically to friends and readers who would in turn pass it to other readers and back to her. Notably a filled out 725 page hard book Journal, writing's about different experiences. One of her piece was titled The Dilemma of being a teenager in Nigeria where she wrote the line "As a teenager in Nigeria, I am constantly expected to live up to a certain Nigerian standard and shun certain things not accepted. If however those same things I'm expected to hate brings me a certain advantage like money or fame and my parents become aware, they would say 'that's my child' and I'm expected to suddenly now know that, that action is now 'suddenly" okay and play along, especially if it's in a public place". She described this as confusing and stated it as being one of the dilemma. Her blogs generally received positive feedback. At seventeen, she gained admission to study Law with a Post Utme score of 87 and a 259 Jamb score.
Career
Roli Hazel started her career in writing at the age of seventeen. She wrote a number of articles, "My Heart", a poetry, "Under the beauty pressure", "Diary of a Christian (16 year old girl)", "Who is a friend?" and "My Philosophical view on freedom". She started her online blog on December 31st 2016, where she published her very first online article on that same day "Letter to my Jewel of inestimable worth" which was received positively and described as a love letter to her "Innocence". She published her poem "My Hosea" on the 27th January 2017, She published "A girl's interest" on the 1st of February 2017, She published her now viral piece "Misconceptions of God" on the 10th February 2017, which later formed path of her audiobook in 2021 as track/chapter "Misconceptions". She published "He loves to be chased", a poetry on the 19th of February 2017, She published "The best love story that was never mine" on 22nd of February 2017 and she published her detailed poetic fiction piece "Love Dance" on March 16th 2017. She started to write stories on her Facebook page refusing to share her blog posts on social media. She reportedly posted stories she wrote in less than ten minutes and some of it within seven minutes and they received impressive comments. In July 2017, one of her short stories went viral on WhatsApp.
In November 2017, at the age of eighteen, she published her first two books "Love 001" and "Words Unspoken", both 375 pages and 327 pages respectively. She was also recommended for publishing two heavy print books at the age of eighteen. She started her foundation almost immediately "Nouriel Foundation; Light and flame of the world" which the sole purpose of putting an end to poverty and helping the needy. It however was denied registration after several attempts and she was forced to cease activities in regard to her foundation.
In January 2018, she joined Instagram for the first time and garnered 123 followers on less than 30 minutes even without posting any picture or following anyone, her account was immediately blocked and she was denied access to her Instagram account resulting in her staying away from social media till 2020. In 2018, she suffered a massive "Spiritual attack" in her words, which completely stopped her from doing any promotion of her work and affected other aspects of her life.
She described that period as a dark phase where she was constantly attacked and believes the reason was due to some feat she had previously achieved. However in August 2018, she participated in the first National Spelling Bee where her love for words were displayed in knowing the ethymology of words and mastering them in Germany, French and Latin. However due to constantly feeling down due to this "envy attacks" she still performed poorly. She started numerous projects by November 2018, an in house all sister retreat, she also organized the legal luminary essay competition which was also not completed.
Breakthrough
In September 2020, she launched her first officially released book "I Love You -God" with only 20 copies of the book. It was all launched in less than 10 minutes generating so much money as if a thousand copies were launched. In November, her book "I Love you - God" was printed on bulk numbers with massive extensive printing by the publishing house Floreat Systems.
I Love you - God sold out 200 print copies in the first twelve days and quite immediately sold 195 print copies in a single day on November 22, 2020. I Love you - God was all sold out in less than 28 days. The massively positive response to the book was beyond exciting for the 21 year old author. She received calls from people from Lagos and Port Harcourt telling her they had copies on their house even though she was unaware how they did. She also received feedback from someone, Mr Segun Abolude, telling her he read her book through and was finished in just one day.
I Love you - God was available in more than 14 states in Nigeria and was available for sale in Phil Hallmark Benin City , Market Square Uyo, Market square Aba, Market square Oweri, Market Square Uniport/Choba Port Harcourt, Market Square GRA Port Harcourt, Market Square Rumuibike Port Harcourt, Market Square Rupokwu Port Harcourt, Market Square Ada George Port Harcourt, Everyday Emporium Supermarket Choba/Uniport, Everyday Emporium Supermarket GRA Port Harcourt, Everyday Emporium Supermarket Rumola Port Harcourt, Everyday Emporium Supermarket 4 Owerri, Everyday Emporium Supermarket 5 world bank road Owerri , Everyday Emporium Supermarket 7 MCC road, Owerri. I Love you - God was endorsed by First Female Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Mrs Elizabeth Ativie. I Love You - God was endorsed by celebrity comedian Young Elder. I Love You - God was made available online on December 21st on Amazon and Okada books where the book sold 30 Online copies through Okada books. I Love You -God was personally translated to Italian (though without the author's permission) not on Amazon but on a personal website belonging to an Italian Man. On December 18, 2020, she was interviewed on Vibes FM.
On January 13, 2021, She published her book History Digest and Salient Point on Crs on the same day. Both books were approved by the Ministry of Education on a personal recommended on the excellence of the book by the then Director of Ministry of Education Delta State and both books were added to the list of approved books for schools. On February 5th 2021, she founded her own school Hazel Foundation School which was officially registered/ Incorporated 7th May, 2021. On February 21st 2021, she published print copies of her book in Nigeria "A Penny for a tale". It is currently credited as the First ever epistolary novel written completely in WhatsApp format including every conversation and pictures in contrast to epistolary novels being written in Letter format.
On March 4, 2021, her book "A Penny for a tale" was accepted by Publishing house Xlibris, Author Solution, a United States Publishing house based in Indiana Bloomington with a contract deal involving distribution to more than 36,000 resellers and book tours to New York, Paris, London, Beijing, China, Frankfurt, Germany and Guadalajara, Mexico.
In April 2021, she was interviewed by Vibes FM, a second time and it was recorded. On April 12, 2021, she recorded the I Love You - God audiobook which included track/chapter "Misconceptions" from her old article "Misconceptions of God" and a recorded version of her Interview with Vibes FM titled "Heart to Heart Session" which addressed sensitive topics like bullying . On May 6th 2021, her audiobook "I Love you - God" was released on all platforms worldwide and available for sales internationally.
The author did not initially know it was on Audiomack and it recorded 1000 streams on Audiomack before she even knew it existed. I Love you -God audiobook went on to garner 657,000 streams and 16.3k listeners in less than three weeks. The audiobook also had 7000 streams even after she stopped promoting it, making it the most streamed audiobook and in spoken word genre as she currently is still the most streamed spoken word artist in Nigeria.
I Love you - God audiobook was also featured on the home page of Spotify. Her track /Chapter "Misconceptions" recorded 415 views on YouTube audio and the entire audiobook recorded a thousand views on YouTube Audio without any video or even visual promotion. On May 21st 2021, she recorded a 500 track playlist podcast for mental health awareness month and it was unreleased.
On June 12, 2021, she was a guest artist at Shamrock Hotel where she gave a poetic rendition of Beyonce's song "Flawless" as a cover version infusing her spoken word lines into the song. On June 19th 2021, she published print versions of nine (9) books which were "At the Crack of Dawn", "A Compilation of Essays", "Research work on Human Trafficking", "Life Hack", "Compilation of Poetry", "Menorah", "#they don't really care", "For Her" and "The rule of Bastards".
On July 12, 2021, She was featured on Naija Pick up where she was described as "Multi Millionaire artist" and her audiobook was also made available for download.On July 17th 2021, she rendered he first lecture at Wesley Hotel on invite after her book "I Love you -God" had been read and described as Impressive.
On August 10, 2021, her book A Penny For a tale recorded a one billion online sale worldwide through social media platforms for a campaign that was launched to promote anti - bullying.
On August 11, 2021, she rendered a poetry presentation of an unreleased piece titled "You Love me". On September 3rd 2021 her book "A Penny for a tale" was released online and immediately reposted by numerous online sellers in the United States. Copies were also available for sale in Chiron Media Walking Ford United Kingdom, International bookstore Walking Ford, Oxon, United Kingdom, Ria Christie Collections Uxbridge, United Kingdom, Books to Anywhere Fairford United Kingdom, Paper back shop US wood dale, IL, USA, Bentonvile Neighborhood Market Bentonvile, Bentonvile Bentonvile Neighborhood Market Walton Blvd Bentonvile, Bentonvile Neighborhood Market Central Ave Bentonvile, Centerton Neighborhood Market, Rogers Neighborhood Market Walnut St Rogers, Rogers Neighborhood Market Pauline Whitaker Pkwy Rogers.
Her book A Penny for a Tale was translated into more than 15 languages including traditional Chinese language and Modern Chinese language and was also available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google play, Ave book, Indigo, Better World books asides the repost it received online from numerous sellers.
In September 2021, her book I Love You -God was approved by the Ministry of Education through a rigorous free and fair process where her book was selected as the only newbie in the Literature Category along with three other books "A toad for Supper by Chukwuemeka Ike", "A bottled leopard by Chukwuemeka Ike" and Esther Dame. She described this as extremely glorious being selected among a Legend whose book she read for her own UTME referencing Chukwuemeka Ike. In October 2021, Walmart stocked copies of get book which sold out in less than two weeks. On December 4, 2021, her book "A Penny for a tale" received a 4.5 star rating on Amazon
By December 2021, PDF versions of her book "A Penny for a tale" were available for download on different websites.
On February 5, 2022, her audiobook I Love you - God was ranking #12 on Naija Pick Up . On February 14, 2022, She made headlines on Vanguard Nigeria News Paper where she was described as a Multi Talented writer who has received unparalleled success in her writing career, as well as on Nigerian news papers online, This is Lagos, Facebook, Sundiate Post, Latest Nigerian news, Instablog, Street Journal Org, Bell news Online and others for a 300 million online readers
On June 2, 2022, she made headlines again on Newspad and Infodaily where she was described as an Amazon Best selling author.
On July 7, 2022, she had her first television interview with Nigerian Television Authority where she talked about reading culture in Nigeria. On July 12th 2022, her audiobook was ranking #1 on Naija Pick up. On July 23, 2022, She made headlines on Opinion Nigeria with over 794 views as of November 27th 2022.
On July 31, she published her short story which was written in June 2020 and notably written in 20 minutes. It was originally published on The Pen. It received a fairly ore advantageous acclaim being immediately reposted by Sahara weekly, Opera news, Trixx Nigeria, The status online blog, Town crier, Naira land and Naija World. It had 12,000 reads in four hours and received a 5/5* rating on Arewa Reporters. It also went on to have 500 organic reads on Naira land in less than 15 days counted organically per IP address, preventing more than one view from one IP address and currently as of November 27th 2022 has 8000 views. It also received a total of 26 likes and 19 shares.
On September 27, 2022, she published new version of her audio book "I Love You" published on the same day with "I Love you , Deluxe Edition" both with 7 tracks/chapters and 10 tracks/chapters respectively. On October 31st 2022, her audiobook was ranking #16 on Naija pick up. On November 1st 2022, her old retrieved articles had a total of 1560 reads. On November 2nd 2022, her audiobook "I Love you" was published on Audiomack In the evening, it had 8000 streams by the next day and 934 listeners making it the fastest streamed audiobook and in the spoken word genre as well.
Lectures and appearances
* Anti-bullying Lecture in Enoma Foundation School, April 11, 2021.
* Power of influence in Westley Hotel, July 17, 2021.
* Poetry Rendition, Shamrock Hotel, July 12, 2021.
* Poetry Rendition for "You Love me", August 11, 2021.
* Interview with Vibes Fm, December 18, 2020
* Interview with Vibes FM, April 2021.
* Reading Culture in Nigeria an interview with Nigerian Television Authority broadcast on television and aired on YouTube.
Quotes
* "We each are strong in our own right for pain has no accounting for taste" - A Penny for a Tale.
* "One who has never cried for love does not know what love is and one who cried everyday for love does not know what love is" - I Love You -God.
* "Intimacy defined is letting me see the child in you " - I Love you - God.
* "If you Live to be a 100 years old, I want to live to be a 100 years minus one so I never have to live a day without you " - I Love You - God
Religion
Roli Hazel is Outrightly Christian and although not considered a Christian writer, she is very vocal about her faith as well as sincere about the different faith crisis she has experienced which she has talked about numerous times. It is interesting to note however that her Instagram posts have been consistently biblical passages or reference to God since May 20th 2020 on every single post and till date, currently November 27th 2022. She has also on numerous occasions made reference to spiritual attacks that were extremely violent and violating during the pandemic. She noted her faith in God was restored when she got her first car at the age of 21.
Relationship
Described generally as a private person who hates to engage In loud social affairs she also admitted to never being involved in any romantic relationship at all. This is mostly due to attending an all girls secondary school and deciding not to based on personal decision and high moral standard in accordance with her faith.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu