Women taking the lead in Nigeria’s Creative Spaces
Media does a terrible job of sharing Africa Women’s success stories. These 5 Women Are Breaking Boundaries In Nigeria’s Creative Spaces. We speak to them about their work and contributions to Nigerian societyand especially within creative spaces, all despite their patriarchal background and nature.
“African women in general need to know that it’s ok for them to be the way they are, and to see the way they are, as a strength, and to be liberated from fear and from silence” Wangarĩ Muta Maathai. These words prompts one to think about how media at times maligns the sharing of success stories of African women. As journalists, our work is based on telling African stories, and the gap of female stories is a very apparent one that needs to be told. It’s important to have an environment that appreciates fearless and bold women chasing their dreams and breaking new boundaries before them.
- Toketemu Ohwovoriole, a multimedia storyteller & journalist
- Solis, a singer, songwriter, poet, & muse
- Lauretta Yemoja, a beauty artist and rapper/singer
- Tiwa Pearl, a dancer and creative
- Oyinkansola Dada, an art curator and founder of art gallery Polartics, to talk about their careers.
Toketemu Ohwovoriole speaks about her writing craft and pasion for story telling. ‘I can’t say I’ve always wanted to be a writer but as long as I can remember I felt most comfortable expressing myself with words. I’m actually a lawyer, but somewhere between my fourth year in university and law school, I decided I wanted to write. I got my first shot with Red Media and from then on I started writing for anyone who would pay me to write.
Kammal Zulu-Okafor (Solis) tells us about your musical journey. ‘Music has always been a part of my life, and a part of my spirit and who I am. I’ve been singing since I was five years old and started writing music around 8 years old. So music has always been a very innate and personal thing to me. Professionally, I honestly didn’t plan on starting music when I did. I had definitely started putting myself out there because I had a Youtube channel and I posted freestyles on social media but I didn’t have any real plan of taking it professionally. It all sort of happened to me, the universe placed the blessings my way. It’s quite hard to describe my music because it doesn’t fit one criterion and it lends itself to different genres but I think what I’ll describe my music as is ‘storytelling,’ that’s the very basic description of it. To tell a story and have people feel something, whether that’s sadness, joy, warmth or comfort. My music is meant to be a solace for people which is a double entendre to my name as Solis which means the sun but also hoping people find peace in my music.
Read more here – Source: www.okayafrica.com
