Hauwa Lawal

"All I do
is tell stories."

Writer · Screenwriter · Chaotic narrator of Nigerian life

Hauwa Lawal in a close portrait, wearing a white lace dress

The woman
behind the words.

Hauwa grew up in Mushin and Ikorodu, Lagos — the kind of neighbourhood that gives you material whether you want it or not. She's been writing since she was old enough to fill notebooks with cartoon characters nobody asked for.

Today she writes across formats — newsletter essays, scripts, and comics — with a signature style that is funny, precise, and uncomfortably honest. Her Substack has over 49,000 subscribers. Her comic book, Hauwa's Madhouse, sold out. She won a Future Africa Award for creativity and innovation.

She is also, by her own admission, a lot.

Stories

From the inside of a very specific kind of chaos.

My Name Is Hauwa And I Wrote A Comic Book

For the first time, I'd like to share something I've been working on for as long as I can remember.

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All I do is tell stories

Sometimes they're funny, other times not. But you'll get a story regardless — that much I can promise.

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The Chaos Is the Point

There is a version of me that is calm and collected. I have never met her, but I have heard she exists.

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Read All Essays

Writing for
the camera.

Hauwa writes for screen. She contributed to My Name Zozo, the short series by Elozonam, and has served as script analyst on an upcoming 2026 feature film. Her screenwriting draws from the same well as her essays — character-first, dialogue-sharp, and rooted in the textures of Nigerian everyday life.

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Hauwa's
Madhouse

A comic book. A chaotic girl. A Lagos face-me-I-face-you house full of people who have had enough of her.

Hauwa's Madhouse is Hauwa's first published book — personal, illustrated, and uncomfortably funny. Set in today's Nigeria and drawn with care by an illustrator who actually got the assignment.

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