10 Years of Wak'dala - An Ode to My Village

This exhibition is ten years in the making.

Ten years ago, Wak’dala picked up a camera with no formal training — only instinct, curiosity, and a deep love for home. She is self-taught. What started as photographing the women around her, the hands that raised her, the streets that shaped her, became a calling. She later went on to hone her craft at AFDA, but her eye was always formed here — in the village.

This collection, started in 2020, is a homecoming.

Every image is an ode. To the village that taught her how to see. To the women who taught her how to be — grandmothers, mothers, sisters, aunties, neighbours, and friends. The women who carry water, carry stories, carry each other. The women whose strength is quiet, whose beauty is in their everyday labour, whose grace is in their laughter.

It is not just about what they look like, but who they are. And where we come from.

For ten years, Wak’dala has been documenting that truth. This exhibition is a thank you. To the village for being her first classroom. To the women for being her first muses. And to you, for being here to witness it.

Welcome.

Wak’dala | 2016 - 2026