Wana Udobang

Wana Udobang in 2015

Wana Udobang (22nd of March, 1969) also known as Wana Wana, is a Nigerian writer, poet, journalist, filmmaker, and television personality. Her work has appeared on the BBC, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, BellaNaija, and The Guardian. She has been described as one of the biggest champions of our new spoken word renaissance is taking a leap into the void.

Quotes

• So at 16 I decided to be a journalist, that way I could tell the stories of people and bring it to public attention. However now I think I am still telling stories but just in different mediums. For me it is still a way of helping people seek some kind of justice or resolution or at least it will be the beginning of it I hope.
  • [1] Wana talk about her career in 2015.
• Getting to host the Airtel Touching Lives televison show has to be one of my high points. I can’t really think of any low points because I tend to just see every experience as something to grow from. I am also a person that rolls with the punches so I don’t have very much time to notice low points as I just keep it moving.
  • [2] Wana talk about high and low point in 2015.
• In all the challenges women face in this environment, feminism means way too many things to me, but two words that encapsulate all those things would be freedom and choice.
  • [3] Wana Udobang on feminism in 2015.
• I worry about myself because I have too many dreams and ambitions. The future includes writing and creating plays, films and documentaries, touring the world as a performance poet, curating contemporary art, hopefully presenting more television and more journalistic work as well. I hope to continue supporting the work of the Mirabel center and hopefully start my mentorship workshops for teenage girls.
  • [4] Wana on future dreams and ambitions in 2015.
• I don’t do macho, hard man, inexpressive, or dictatorial. Partnership is important to me.
  • [5] Wana on her ideal man in 2015.
• It is always very easy hide with poetry. The bones of some of the poems were written as part of a month-long challenge that I was part of in a closed Facebook group. Everyday we got a prompt and had to produce a poem before midnight. It was quite grueling, and I don’t think any of us finished the thirty days but it really opened me up emotionally. I also wrote many of the poems traveling.
  • [6] Wana as a poet in 2017.
• There are a lot of incredible artists doing amazing work. Unfortunately, there aren’t many spaces for them to showcase the incredible work they do.I wanted to create something that would illuminate the works of these individuals and their creative process. So as a lover of all things art and culture, I thought it was time to have a go at a video interview series and thus Culture Diaries was born.
  • [7] Wana talk about creation of culture diaries in 2017.
• My work is also very minimalist aesthetically, which is an extension of me. I think as an individual I am constantly living and dealing with a myriad of complexities, so I crave and need simplicity to function and I think those same principles drive my work.
  • [8] Wana talk about work in 2017.
• Energy is a real thing, so whether it’s with people or what you read it comes with the spaces you enter. You allow yourself to absorb those things and they will have an impact on you. If you are consuming a diet everyday of negativity and danger, and thoughts that everyone is out to get you, this is all that will consume you. Even when you are saying your prayers this is all that is going to consume your prayer pattern. You are going to keep fighting demons in your prayers.
  • [9] Wana speak about energy and their impact in 2017.
• I hope to use this form of story telling as a way to humanize, educate, highlight some of the healthcare inconsistencies and stigmatization of people living with various illnesses.
  • [10] Wana shares spotlight on interview series "Warriors" in 2017.
• I think hosting events are a side hustle but everything else part and parcel of my career. I think when you see things as a side hustle then they become that. Journalism, poetry and documentary film are all full time careers I juggle and I put the same soul, energy and resources into each and every one.
  • [11] Wana speak on main and side hustle in 2018.
• I think, when you grow up as a black person or an African in a black and African country, identity isn’t something you are particularly concerned about. I only became conscious of racial identity when I moved to the UK and started to understand the subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways in which this compounds the way you are seen and how you move through the world.
  • [12] Wana share experiences when she moved to UK in 2019.
• I am inspired by the different ways that women stand up for themselves, and are constantly navigating through the waters of patriarchal traditions to take up space.
  • [13] Wana speak about women in 2019.

External links

• WanaWana