Noo Saro-Wiwa and Zina Saro-Wiwa
by Beth Palmer

Noo Saro-Wiwa is a British-Nigerian author whose family moved to Ewell, Surrey from Port Harcourt, Nigeria when she was a baby. Her book, Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria (2012) made her mark as a travel writer. It captures the five month journey she took through Nigeria and is characterised by a witty and affectionate approach to its subject, full of telling details and weaving in Saro-Wiwa’s own personal memories and family history. This work and has more recently been followed by Black Ghosts: A Journey into the Lives of Africans in China (2023) which features the untold stories of Africans living in China and blocked from commerce with Europe and North America. Noo Saro-Wiwa also writes for the Guardian and Conde Nast Traveller and reviews for the Times Literary Supplement.

Noo Saro-Wiwa, Festival Atlantide, Nantes. Wikimedia Commons.

Noo’s twin sister, Zina Saro-Wiwa is an artist who works with video, photography, sound and other media to create works that explore the nature of power, indigeneity and environmentalism. Having worked at the BBC as a journalist, producer and presenter for a decade, Zina Saro-Wiwa moved into art in 2010 and has since found huge success and her art has been shown across the world. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Smithsonian Museum of African Art, The Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford and Museum of Fine Arts Houston are among the institutions that house Zina Saro-Wiwa’s pieces.

The twins are daughters of the activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and Noo Saro-Wiwa presented a documentary about his life, his campaign against the extraction of crude oil in the Niger Delta, and his execution for the BBC world service.