18 Facts About Leo Igwe

Leo Igwe's fieldwork has led to his arrest on several occasions in Nigeria.

Leo Igwe was raised in southeastern Nigeria, and describes his household as being strictly Catholic in the midst of a "highly superstitious community," according to an interview in the Gold Coast Bulletin.

At age twelve, Leo Igwe entered the seminary and began to study for the Catholic priesthood.

Leo Igwe was influenced to become a humanist activist through the writings of Paul Kurtz, which he read in magazines published by the Center for Inquiry.

Leo Igwe is listed as a Junior Fellow for the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies, where his project is a case study of witchcraft accusation in northern Ghana.

Leo Igwe wrote in 2004 that in his own country of Nigeria, contemporary belief in witchcraft leads to ritual killing and human sacrifice, noting that women and children are more likely to be said to possess or practice "negative" witchcraft abilities, while men are more often depicted as possessing benign witchcraft abilities.

In 2009, Leo Igwe represented the International Humanist and Ethical Union at the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in Banjul, Gambia, where he spoke out on the IHEU's behalf against caste-based discrimination in Africa.

On 11 February 2014, Leo Igwe was chosen as a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism.

Leo Igwe is an outspoken supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, an organisation which campaigns for democratic reformation of the United Nations.

Leo Igwe continues to speak out against attacks on alleged witches in Malawi.

Leo Igwe has served on the board of directors of Atheist Alliance International, where he facilitated collaboration between AAI and the Nigerian Humanist Movement, resulting in the NHM receiving both the AAI International Freidenker Award and the AAI Community Cooperation Award.

In 2012, Leo Igwe wrote A Manifesto for a Skeptical Africa, which received endorsements from multiple public activists in Africa, as well as skeptical endorsers around the world.

In October 2012, Leo Igwe was appointed as a research fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, a skeptical nonprofit organization founded by magician and skeptic James Randi.

In 2017, Leo Igwe attended the seventeenth European Skeptics Congress.

Leo Igwe described a method of critical thinking in an article for Committee for Skeptical Inquiry that he calls "iDoubt".

Leo Igwe has created teaching aids for teachers and primary school pupils on the topic of critical thinking.

In 2022, Leo Igwe founded an initiative that provides social and psychological support to non-religious former clergy in Africa.

Leo Igwe was appointed as a research fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where he continues working toward the goal of responding to the deleterious effects of superstition, advancing skepticism throughout Africa and around the world.