Basing her life story around the mystical African principle of ubuntu, author and noted humanitarian Elizabeth Nyamayaro recounts the trials, troubles and triumphs that led her to her award-winning career with the United Nations in I AM A GIRL FROM AFRICA.

Born in Zimbabwe, Nyamayaro was eight during a devastating drought when her life was saved by a kind woman in a blue uniform who offered her a bowl of porridge. That encounter stayed with the little girl, who resolved that she too would wear that uniform after learning that the woman was with the United Nations. As a child, Nyamayaro changed homes several times. She lived in poverty with her grandmother; then with her mother, who helped her start studying at a local school; and finally with a more prosperous uncle, who could support her attendance at a prestigious institution, which once had been the province only of English colonial children.

"Rich with history and folk wisdom, Nyamayaro’s story demonstrates the absolute courage and determination of one 'girl from Africa to identify and realize her highest aspirations."

In her early 20s, Nyamayaro set out for London with a tiny bit of savings to start a new life. Not surprisingly, she was unable to secure work with the United Nations because she needed more education. She gladly took a job as janitor in the run-down student hostel where she was housed, and through a series of remarkable circumstances, she began to attain the higher education she sought. She began her work with the UN as an unpaid intern in Ethiopia, involved directly with those infected and affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This experience, coupled with her persistence and dynamic personality, led her to higher positions in other African locations with the World Health Organization, UNAIDS and UN Women.

Nyamayaro deftly compares and contrasts her early upbringing in rural Zimbabwe with her struggles to gain a foothold in London and her eventual successes in her chosen field. She reveals to the reader the generally unexpressed joys and inner rewards of life in village Africa, and the great pride she felt in knowing that she was, as her grandmother pronounced, “Mwana Wevhu,” meaning that she was indeed special, but only as special as all other children of the African soil: “[E]ach of us is like a single grain of sand, connected to our land and to each other.” This broadly relates to the concept of ubuntu, an all-embracing worldview of inter-relatedness, which provides the underpinning template for HeforShe. This project of Nyamayaro’s invites men to contribute their skills and resources to advance women’s achievements across the globe.

Rich with history and folk wisdom, Nyamayaro’s story demonstrates the absolute courage and determination of one “girl from Africa” to identify and realize her highest aspirations.