Born in Abuja, Ojima Abalaka lived in the Nigerian capital until she was 17 until she moved to Sheffield, UK, where she enrolled at university to study European and international law. Between exams, however, Ojima continued to update her blog, telling stories and episodes while pretending to be an outcast. Sometimes her posts were accompanied by small sketches she made herself, which over time became more and more present, ending up replacing words for good. 

Once she graduated, Ojima Abalaka returned to her hometown, where she continued to draw and publish her drawings on her Instagram profile. The real turning point came when, after uploading one of her works on the Women Who Draw platform, she was contacted by an art director of the New York Times. 

Since then Ojima has collaborated with different magazines and has developed a simple but striking style that fits perfectly with the subjects of her illustrations and the stories she decides to tell. 

Ojima Abalaka uses portraits to show characteristic elements of different cultures, such as the clothes and accessories typical of the Igbo, one of the largest African ethnic groups, or the typical dishes of Ethiopian cuisine. 

Her illustrations are not only aesthetically beautiful, but they tell stories that are rooted in the culture of different countries, turning into testimonies of customs and traditions of distant peoples that we should learn to know.