Digital content creator and storyteller Hauwa Lawal has emphasized that Africa’s economic growth depends on Africans telling their own stories authentically to combat persistent global misconceptions.
At the NECLive 2025 panel on creative enterprise, Lawal recounted her experience studying in India where someone asked if Nigeria had airplanes. “I thought, ‘How did you think I got here? You think I teleported?'” she said, illustrating the absurd stereotypes Africans face internationally.
Lawal, whose work spans journalism, photography, writing, and digital marketing, argued that storytelling serves as the primary vehicle for exporting Africa’s economy to the world. “Our economy can only be exported to the world if we’re able to tell our own stories,” she stated.
The young creator described her community-building approach as centered on making people feel seen. “When I tell the story of a young Nigerian girl living in Nigeria, what I have to face every day, people see themselves in my stories,” she explained.
Addressing young creators, Lawal encouraged fluidity across creative disciplines while maintaining core storytelling abilities. “Creativity is very fluid. You can go in and out of things. I don’t like to be boxed in,” she said, noting that she’s replicated her storytelling gift across multiple platforms and industries.
Her message to African creatives was simple yet powerful: “There’s no story that you can’t tell. Every story matters.”
