nileflow network

Winner of the Best African Act at the Music of Black Origin awards, Nigerian musician, Nneka Egbua says she was surprised when her name was called out.

“It is Nigeria that has made me to who I am today,” says the 27 year old,

Her politically inspired, strangely haunting voice has spell bounded fans all over.

Nneka blends contemporary urban music with iconic afro beats. She says her influences include US rapper Mos def and Nigerian writer/human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Mr Saro-Wiwa was gunned down by the Sani Abacha government in 1995 for his efforts to campaign against corruption in the oil rich Niger delta.
"Stand up against; corruption, against injustice, against bribery and hypocrisy.......RAISE UR VOICES," she says on her MySpace page.
Nneka grew up in the oil town of Warri and travelled at the age of 19 to meet her German mother.
Like the recently acclaimed film Teza, by Haile Girma, Nneka explores the complexities of being a halfcast.
"They don't see themselves as black and they don't see themselves as white and they don't know how to handle the situation," she told the BBC's Network Africa.
Her most recent hit song, Heartbeat, is very politically oriented says Nneka.
"It's about how the Western world has abused Africa and we have maintained a colonial mentality - we have this inferiority complex," she told the BBC’s Network Africa.
Her music career began as a means to support her education. She now has a degree in anthropology and archaeology.
Although she does not see herself as an activist she says it is important to have a message in her work, which is perhaps a product of her upbringing.
"I always wanted to speak my mind and now I'm given the opportunity to do so on stages and by being able to produce the music," She told BBC’s Network Africa.