We had an open Twitter Space conversation with Hauwa Lawal, a Digital Creator and Content writer to discuss her journey from writing engaging tweets to a successful comic book.

Let’s dive right into it!

Selar: Hi Hauwa, good evening, how’s everything? 

H: Hi Treasure, I’m fine, thank you. (laughs) How are you too?

Selar: So many of us know you as Hauwa, the babe that makes everybody laugh on the timeline. Sometimes I read your post and I wonder how you come up with these things, but we know there’s a lot more to your online personality. So I want to start with the question, Who is Hauwa, tell us about yourself.

H: (Laughs) omo I don’t know oh. I am just a small girl looking for money up and down you know. My name is Hawa, I write, there is nothing extra about me. I am just someone that likes to write and I write on Twitter and that’s about it. What in particular would you like to know? Because I don’t know a lot about myself, I just know that I come online, catch cruise and go offline. 

Selar: You could talk about your career trajectory, what you do, apart from catching cruise online.

H: So what they sent me to school to learn gan gan is Journalism. I studied journalism for about three and half years and then it was time for me to do my internship. I did my internship at a newspaper company and I didn’t last for one month because they chased me away. I wasn’t doing anything. (Laughs)

Selar: Laughs

H: I wasn’t really interested. What concerns me with who has Nigeria, I don’t understand. Because I am a Muslim, my dad is an Alhaji that knows one Alhaja at that company, and that’s how I was going there every day. Omo at one point they did not see me in the newspaper place again because I ran away. 

My parents sent me to school to learn journalism and be a reporter. I knew it wasn’t for me. So I just branched out and started writing on my own. One day people saw that what I wrote was nice and they just started following me. That was how I found myself here. Nothing extra.

Selar: (laughs) I feel like even with interviews you’re so unserious because what do you mean by you’re just catching cruise?

H: Really, Nigeria is hard enough. Maybe if I relocate, then I can be like a proper career babe but as long as I am still in this Nigeria, it’s cruise we will be catching.

Selar: That makes a lot of sense. So you do content writing. How did you discover that you love to write humourous content? What was that journey like for you?

H: As far back as I can remember, I have always liked to write stories. It was just what I was interested in. But because I like to write, my parents thought they should give me a career in something like mass communication. They tried science and that one didn’t even work out for them.

So I started writing stories and would fill my entire books with stories to the extent that they’d punish me in school because they asked you to write maths and you’re writing story. Are you okay? 

I just realized that I liked literature a lot but even that alone was stress, because why are you telling me about Romeo and Juliet? What is my business?

After I finished my bachelor’s degree I decided to work at Krakstv and it was supposed to be for three months. 

I started writing funny content for them but I kept it away from my personal page because I was not with Krakstv as a guest writer, but as a full-time staff.

I realized that I liked what they were doing and decided to stay there for longer before going for my Master’s degree. 

Selar: Okay. What do you love about being a creator?

H: ah omo, I like that it’s not like a typical 9 to 5 or serious work. I like that you can just sit down and think about something. I mean with my brand of creating sha oh, because I don’t know about other people’s brand of creating. 

But I like that I can just sit down and think about stupid things and that’s my job. My job is to be stupid and I love it so much. Think about it, what better thing is there to do in this life than just sit down and think about stupid things and people are paying you for it? 

I think about it all the time and think that this is cruise. I like that as a creator I can just be catching cruise. And that is just the niche that I am. I don’t have to be serious. I can just be myself. 

Selar: It seems like your role at Krakstv played a pivotal role in making you choose humor as your core niche right?

H: Yeah. See Nigeria is hard, and that’s why I think we have a lot of people into skits now. Although many people are just going into skits to buy range rover. I mean if I could do it, I would, but I can’t do it. 

Generally, Nigeria is not the easiest place to live and you need to laugh a lot to survive. It might be difficult for people to translate humor into writing, although people do it every day on Twitter in long forms and stories. 

I saw that what I wanted to read wasn’t readily available and I decided to write it and make myself laugh. And that’s another thing. I always aim to make myself laugh, not another person. 

If I’m not laughing at my stories then it’s a problem because, in the beginning, I’m the one that needs to laugh. I have just been trying to make myself laugh and in the process, I’ve been making other people laugh. 

Selar: okay. That leads to my next question. Tell us about your new book – Hauwa’s Madhouse and why comics.

H: The reason I chose comics is that as a kid I used to draw comics a  lot although the illustration wasn’t great. I really liked it and could fill a whole book with drawing, comics, and everything, but my parents just put a stop to it like what’s this nonsense you’re doing? 

When I started working with Krakstv and doing my own stuff, I realized that I needed pictures to tell a story. I needed videos and memes to bring the story to life. 

Of course, comics are underexplored in Nigeria but we use memes all the time on Twitter and it’s comics too.  I thought about using memes but they don’t belong to me. So the next thing I thought to do was comics. 

Then to your second question, my book, it’s really personal to me and it’s also a script that I wrote a long time ago for someone actually. But I thought I could also turn it into a comic book.  

The reason I chose the title “Hauwa’s mad house” is because it revolves around Hauwa obviously, and growing up we used to live in a “face-me-I-face-you-house”. So I thought of doing something around the house where I lived and the tenants there. That’s how I thought about the whole thing and felt it’ll be good as a comic book, so I did it. 

Selar: I love it so much.

H: thank you (laughs).

Selar: This is a question on the side but please who is Kabiru laughs, where did that character come from (laughs)?

H: (laughs). I am tired of you people asking about my man. Do you want to see him? (laughs).

Selar: (laughs), no, but why are you always stressing this man? 

H: I don’t understand, he no dey stress me? He dey stress me I dey stress am we are stressing each other. We understand ourselves ( laughs).

Selar: okay (laughs)

H: The problem is that men have shown me shege in this life. At a point, someone broke my heart like a bastard and I just said I wasn’t doing life with men again. I am just going to have my imagination husband and that’s it. And his name will be Kabiru. No more relationships for me, just imaginary characters from now on. Nobody is going to break my heart (laughs).

Selar: Let’s talk about content writing a bit more.  What are some of the challenges you feel are peculiar to being a content writer here in Nigeria?

H: A lot of people don’t take you seriously when you say you’re a content writer, especially when you live in Nigeria. And it really makes my blood boil because it takes a lot to be a content creator/writer.

As a writer a lot of people just look down on you and say, is it not just writing? What else are you doing? And you’re trying to explain to them that it isn’t just writing. Even the silly things that I write are not easy. 

It doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s not like it’s easy to just sit down and just write anything. I think that those are the things that I struggle with personally, as a content creator and I think that a lot more people should respect the field, respect what people are doing. 

A lot of the time, they say, you’re just an influencer and it’s wrong. I don’t think it’s just that. Another one is payment for content creators, they are not well paid most times, because they are not just taken seriously. 

I think that those are the things that we should work on and focus more on in Nigeria. I know that other people would have other things to say regarding content creation and the problems that they face. But personally. These are just the ones that I feel I face as a content creator.

Selar: Okay, it’s fair. These things matter. Content matters, the way we present our stuff online matters. People are starting to value it more and more, but for now, I know that it’s a very pressing issue.

Selar: There are so many young content writers out there who are probably here and are looking for a form of guidance or are looking to get inspired from your story. Do you have any tips or strategies or advice for the young group of content writers who see what you do and would like to explore content as a source of income?

H: (laughs). See, let me tell you something. You can start and you’ll just blow, but for me, I am still very broke (laughs). Omo I don’t have advice like that but what I can say is that when you start out, you’re going to just start out writing and putting out your stuff.

I know that a lot of writers don’t like to put out their stuff because it’s not good enough. What do you mean by that? It is good enough.

Selar: (laughs). Why are you shouting?

H: Yes, I am glad that the bullet is hitting you. It needs to hit somebody. I cannot be shouting in vain. Put it out. Just do it.

I am not even thinking about it too much. I don’t spend one hour thinking about your newsletter. As soon as it drops, I’ll read it. I’ll be like this and go on about my day and that is it. People read your stuff but you’re just in your head too much.

People will see your stuff, they are going to like it and they are going to move on and you’re going to put it out again, they will like it and move on again.

One day somebody is going to see it and somebody is going to offer you bastard money to come and recreate it for them and before you know it you’re blown, you’re taking vacation everywhere. You are happy, you’re eating chicken, everything is just fine for you but you will not do that. What will you do?

You will sit down inside your room, you’ll hide your face, you’ll not put it out, and you’ll be crying every day. You need to go out, you need to meet people, you need to talk about your work. 

You need to plug people into your work and you need to market your work like mad, talk about it, and give yourself the flowers before other people will. So if you’re a new content creator, start.

The good thing about the internet is that you can start tomorrow and supersede the person that started 5 years ago. So why are you delaying your grace? You need to start living your best life now. As a new content creator, do what you want to do and move on.

That’s the advice I have. Sorry it’s not like the greatest advice, it’s just like the advice that came to my head.

Selar: Please, amazing advice. I feel ministered to, thank you so much. That was amazing. So how do you come up with ideas for the things you write?

H: Ah omo, well, for the longest time it’s poverty. At that point I was so broke I was like what am I going to do to make money?  (laughs). But for the content itself, I grew up in a chaotic place. If you live in Lagos then you’d know Mushin and you’ll know that it is just the headquarters of chaos.

Like, they’d be fighting today and nobody can come out. We stayed there for quite some time. So I can say I was born and raised in chaos. So there’s nothing I can do again. I can’t deny who I am.

Also, sometimes I’ll be outside looking at a couple. They are laughing and having fun but I’ll just be thinking about something in my head and before I know what is happening I have written a whole story on the couple and how their love life is and everything. 

These things just come to me. Yes, I like to sit down and think about what I want to do, especially if I am working for a brand and they have an idea of what they want. But most of the time when I am just doing this for fun, it’s really easy. I can just be cooking and ideas will just come. I don’t know how to explain it, but the ideas just come. That’s it.

Selar: It actually makes a lot of sense. I remember somebody saying that Lagos is like a well for ideas. I totally agree.

H: Thank you for that.

Selar: You’re welcome. So, how did you maintain anonymity all these years until you recently decided to reveal your identity, would you like to share why?

H: Omo again, it was poverty. I was broke. You know how you can be broke and be asking yourself wetin be this sef? Also, I was doing my Master’s and I was just not ready to. There was no reason to put my face out.

I wasn’t crazy about taking pictures and didn’t have time for all of that. I was schooling, I was working multiple jobs. So I didn’t have time to socialize. I wasn’t even in Nigeria at the time.

There was a time I had some of my pictures online and a lot of people said stuff like “You don’t look like what you write” and it was starting to annoy me. So I deleted all my pictures on Instagram.

Selar: Okay. So why did you now decide to reveal yourself?

H: (laughs). I moved out of my parent’s house in Ikorodu. If I was still living in Ikorodu and someone saw me in Ketu or in Agric now, they will say is that not that stupid girl from Twitter. I will now be running up and down and will not be able to go out of my house.

If you know Agric in Ikorodu, you’ll know it’s a very bad place. The part where I stay in Ikorodu is the ghetto and I don’t want anybody to see me hanging from maruwa in this place. So, I moved out and I was like ah, it is over for everybody. I don’t have to hide anymore.

So, I put my face out and I was like nobody is going to see me in Ikorodu again. I became a city girl.

Selar: Osheyyyy

H: purrrrr

Selar: Thank you so much for sharing. I have had the best time. I don’t have any more questions from my end. I want to reiterate that everyone should please buy Hauwa’s comic book. It’s totally worth it.