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Warri musician Nneka Egbuna in a recent interview, expressed her surprise and excitement at winning the Best African Act at the Music Of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards.

27-year-old Nneka, who describes herself as a daughter of Warri, Niger Delta region of Nigeria never heard of MOBO until she found out she was the winner.

She said the win means more people will hear about her music. "But it's not about me it's the continent and its music."

"It is Nigeria that has made me to who I am today," she said in her acceptance speech at the awards ceremony in Glasgow.

Her politically charged lyrics and a haunting voice  have won her fans around the globe.

Nneka credited the late Nigerian music icon, Afro-beat maestro Fela Anikulapo Kuti and contemporary musicians like rapper Mos Def as some of her musical influences.

She also credits Nigeria writer and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa as an inspiration.

Nneka wrote on her MySpace page, "Stand up against; corruption, against injustice, against bribery and hypocrisy.......RAISE UR VOICES,"-

Nneka, born to a German mother, grew up in the oil City of Warri and only met her Germany mother at the age of 19.

Nneka addressed the difficulties of those who grow up as mixed-race children in her son Half Caste.

"They see themselves as neither black nor white" an don't know how to handle the situation.

She considers her most recent song Heartbeat, an internet hit, "very political".

"It's about how the Western world has abused Africa and we have maintained a colonial mentality - we have this inferiority complex," she says.

Nneka herself has demonstrated a typical Nigerian determination to get where she is.

Initially she played music to pay for her university education.

"It was never my goal to go into music, I just did music to keep me going - like a therapy," she says.

"I stepped out of Nigeria for the first time ever in 2000 without knowing the German language or anything about my German background.

"It was a culture shock - music became like God to me.

"I did music to finance my studies and I got a record deal two years later and that kind of brought change entirely and I was able to finish my studies very fast."

Nneka does not see herself as an activist but considers it important to have a message in her work, which is perhaps a product of her upbringing.

"Warri is a very rough place - there's a lot turmoil, a lot of tribalism, a lot of war - that has kind of strengthened me.

"I always wanted to speak my mind and now I'm given the opportunity to do so on stages and by being able to produce the music."