Nneka Speaks Out On Women's Rights In Africa

Nneka recently stopped by for a chat and acoustic performance with the The World Bank's #Music4Dev program. The Nigerian singer-songwriter, who's been busy touring and promoting her latest album My Fairy Tales, played a pristine version of her staple "My Home" and shared her opinions about women's rights and gender issues in Nigeria and Africa in a brief interview.

"I use my music as a platform to express [such] issues,” Nneka states. “I grew up in... Nigeria where women don’t have that much freedom to express themselves on many different levels, whether it be politically or even within the family. Having been raised in a society where you have to respect the system in fear — where respect is mistaken as fear — I withdrew myself [in order] for me to understand what was going on and for me to re-identify myself as a human being, first of all, and then as a woman."

Nneka's the cultural ambassador of the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) and co-founded the ROPE Foundation (Reach Out, Organize, Practice, Experience), a charity supporting young people who want to express themselves through art, who recently partnered with WAGA Foundation (War Affected Girls and Adults) to help sexually abused women in Sierra Leone. Watch her interview and performance with The World Bank below.