Natachi Onwuamaegbu is the CEO and co-founder of the Ndeza Collective’s “Braiding Nairobi,” a multiplatform storytelling site dedicated to sharing the stories and complexities of female hair braiders in Kenyatta Market, Nairobi. She has developed an app that allows clients to order these hair braiders directly to their homes in real time. This project was initially funded through Onwuamaegbu’s Fulbright-National Geographic Fellowship.
As an accomplished entrepreneur and journalist, Onwuamaegbu has written about race, art, and culture for The Washington Post, Al Jazeera English, Cosmopolitan, The Boston Globe, and other outlets. She focuses on covering underreported stories, issues, and communities that might otherwise go unheard.
During her tenure as one of the five global 2022-2023 Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellows, Onwuamaegbu explored the economic opportunities in Nairobi’s Kenyatta market by interviewing female hair braiders and the key players who influence their lives. Her work highlighted both the economic liberation and the entrapment faced by these women, resulting in a series of articles, videos, photo collections, audio pieces, and a magazine published on her National Geographic Field Notes blog.
In 2022, Onwuamaegbu graduated with Honors from Stanford University, majoring in Political Science and minoring in Creative Writing and African and African American Studies. She has completed the first draft of her book, “How to Fall in Sane,” through Stanford’s highly selective Honors in the Arts program.