Structure

Each chapter of I Am A Girl from Africa begins with a suitable African proverb such as the one at the beginning of Chapter 1--"You cannot tell a hungry child that you gave them food yesterday" (Zimbabwean proverb). Then, each chapter moves in a compelling manner back and forth through the child's and then the adult's narrative. Nyamayaro uses Adrinka symbols from Ghana to signify the beginning of each new section within the larger chapter. These symbols represent the fact that God never leaves His children, and there is always hope. The sections that make up each chapter are short, and Nyamayaro tells her stories incrementally. The remarkable journey from starvation to the United Nations is the main narrative, and readers put the vivid portrait together one small puzzle piece at a time. Many of the puzzle pieces detail solutions to the endless problems the author...