Echeruo was primarily notable as a critic of western writers on Africa, as he viewed himself and his contemporaries as writers fighting for an African viewpoint instead of a western viewpoint on the continent. He is best known in poetry for his collection of poems, Mortality (1968); in cultural history for his pioneering study of Victorian Lagos and in lexicography for his Dictionary of the Igbo Language (Yale 1998). He is currently William Safire Professor of Modern Letters in the English Department of Syracuse University.
Echeruo was primarily recognized as a critic of Western writers on Africa, seeing himself and his contemporaries as authors advocating an African perspective rather than a Western one. He is renowned for his poetry collection Mortality (1968), his study of Victorian Lagos, and his dictionary of the Igbo Language (Yale 1998). Currently, he serves as the William Safire Professor of Modern Letters in Syracuse University's English Department.