I AM A GIRL FROM AFRICA, a memoir

261pp., paperback, Johannesburg, 2021

First published in the UK in 2021.

When Elizabeth Nyamayaro was eight-years-old and starving during a severe drought in Zimbabwe, a United Nations aid worker saved her life by giving her a bowl of warm porridge. This event inspired her in her life's work. She is a former United Nations Senior Advisor on Gender Equality and launched HeForShe, one of the world’s largest global solidarity movements for gender equality. She has held leadership positions at the World Bank, World Health Organisation, UNAIDS and UN Women. I am a Girl from Africa is her first book.

"More than a heartwarming and uplifting memoir, I Am a Girl from Africa is a story of millions of girls around the world – and a true testament of what is possible when girls are given an equal right to quality education. Through Elizabeth’s remarkable story, we are reminded that education remains a closest thing to a silver bullet when it comes to gender equality." Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General, UN Women

"This book tells the story of how its title becomes a declaration, not just for the author’s tale of remarkable challenges and achievements, but also for a continent suffering from ills ranging from misogyny and masculinism to pessimism about its ability to heal its own wounds... [Nyamayaro] is ... adamantly committed to inspiration, and in that, the memoir is victorious." The New York Times Book Review