Elizabeth Nyamayaro,
welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
I'm so happy to be here, Trevor.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you for being here.
Um, you have lived quite the life.
And now you have written a memoir about it.
You know, many kids dream of becoming astronauts
or firefighters or-or doctors.
You had an interesting dream. Your dream growing up
was to work at the United Nations.
That means you either had a really enlightened childhood
or you were one of the most boring children around.
-Which one was it? -(laughs)
Maybe a combination of both. I don't know.
But I think a lot has to do with where I come from.
You know, where we come from.
We come from a continent
that is very much about the community.
So, I grew up in a small African village in Zimbabwe
where I was raised by my gogo, my grandmother.
And I had a beautiful childhood.
And, in Africa, we grow up as part of the community,
and we took care of each other.
We shared our food together.
We wanted for nothing in my village.
But then, when I was eight years old,
a severe drought hit our village and literally devastated us.
Our rivers dried up.
Our crops wilted.
Our livestock perished.
And we were left with nothing to eat and nothing to drink.
Wow.
And, one day, I was just so weak from hunger, Trevor,
I collapsed on the ground.
And in my young mind, I thought I was going to die.
I had not eaten for three days.
But then a miracle happened.
This aid worker with the United Nations found me,
the girl in the blue uniform--
that's what she was wearing--
and she gave me a bottle of porridge
and literally saved my life.
And I remember, after I was able to speak,
I asked her why she was there,
because she was African like me
but I'd never seen her before-- she was not from my village--
and she said to me, "I'm here, because, as Africans,
-we must uplift each other." -Mm.
Again, I was eight years old.
D-Didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time.
But, two years later, I found out
that this girl in the blue uniform
worked for the United Nations,
and it just became my dream.
I just thought, "I want to be just like her,"
so that maybe, one day, I can save just the lives of others
in a similar way that my life had been saved.
And so that was the impetus.
And, of course, decades later, I joined the U.N.,
and I became the girl in the blue uniform.
Your-your memoir talks through this journey,
and-and it takes us on a journey that you have lived.
Um, you know, the title-title of your book is
I Am a Girl from Africa.
You know? And-and what's great about it is
it-it touches on-on so many girls' and women's lives
from Africa, in Africa,
and, really, across-across the world.
When-when we look at your story,
there's one theme that I notice consistently
throughout the book, and that is the theme of ubuntu.
You know? And so, for some people in the U.S.,
they might think of ubuntu as, like, an operating system.
But-but ubuntu, where we're from,
has a very different meaning.
Tell us a little bit about why ubuntu was so important
to you as a theme that you carry through your book and your life.
Yes, so ubuntu is this ancient African philosophy
that is very powerful.
It literally means "I am because we are,"
and it recognizes that we are all connected
by our shared humanity.
My first understanding of the word, actually,
was through my gogo.
So, like you--
I mean, I loved your book, by the way,
-and your gogo is literally my gogo. -Thank you.
And so she taught me about ubuntu
when I was six years old.
We had just come from a very, very long liberation struggle,
trying to liberate our country, Zimbabwe,
from British colonial rule.
And we had a difficult choice,
because the country was a lot more divided,
because colonialism,
as you said in-in your book, uh, Trevor,
-it pitted us against each other as Africans. -Right, right.
And so we were so-- much more divided.
And we had to find a way to heal as a country.
And we evoked this ubuntu spirit as a way to heal.
Um, and, again, what was remarkable for me is,
ten years later, you did a similar thing in South Africa,
when Nelson Mandela became the first president,
that, once again, at the end of anti-apartheid,
you evoked ubuntu.
So ubuntu is this really powerful tool
that enables us to...
really see the humanity in each other,
to practice compassion towards one another.
And it's also how I was raised.
It's this belief that you're part of a community,
and if you are part of a community,
you also have to be part of uplifting that community.
So that's what inspired the book, that--
it's-it's really-- I'm the-- I'm literally the embodiment
of what ubuntu is, that I am because we are.
You-you seem to have taken that theme... to heart
when you-- when you were part of founding the HeForShe campaign,
which, um, was lauded for what it stood for
and what it continues to stand for
but really came to prominence, um,
when-when people started hearing--
It started going viral online.
You know, people said, "Wow, what is this?"
And I think it was actually Emma Watson
who-who gave it a shout-out in--
you know, on her-- on her platforms online.
And people were like, "Well, what is this HeForShe campaign?"
A really interesting idea, because oftentimes,
when people talk about women's safety,
-you know, oftentimes, the burden is put on women. -Mm-hmm.
People go "Oh, why did you dress like that, ladies?"
Or "Should you have been out at that time?"
Or, "You know, these rape stories-- I feel bad for you,
but what responsibility do you bear?"
You came out with a completely different idea.
HeForShe. Could you explain a little bit about that
and why you thought this approach could help?
So before I get into that,
the other moment for HeForShe was
a certain Trevor Noah was part of an event
at the MoMA on the second anniversary.
Then it became really, really cool.
You know, it was like, "Who?"
And then became, like, really, really cool
when Trevor Noah supports it.
-So thank you for doing that, Trevor. -No. My pleasure.
And HeForShe was really inspired
by this African philosophy of Ubuntu,
because I realized that there was such a division
in terms of how we look at gender inequality, right?
It was seen as a woman...
an issue for women lead by women.
And men were almost kind of not engaged
-as much as they should because... -Mm-hmm.
But then they should, right? Because at the end of the day,
as you rightly said,
-the men should be the ones not abusing women. -Right.
We can't put the responsibility
on women to say "Don't abuse me."
And so, I saw an opportunity to bring men,
as part of the conversation and as part of the solution,
so that we as a collective--
again because of our shared humanity--
we can actually work together
to end this really, really devastating issue.
You're always looking to give back.
You're always looking to contribute.
You're trying to find ways to get governments involved.
Because, I mean, I've talked to this,
and I know you have, as well.
I always tell people,
"Governments are the only ones who can fix it."
Philanthropy's a drop in the bucket
that can help in the right direction,
but really, you need the scale of governments
to fix a lot of the systemic and endemic issues that we face.
You, um, have a wonderful initiative
that-that you are a part of with this book.
Tell me a little bit about it.
when people are buying your books,
they're also going to be contributing two books
going to children in Africa.
Yes, so my book, I Am a Girl from Africa,
is out next week on Tuesday, April 20.
And as part of the preorder campaign,
we are donating, for each preorder,
a book to girls in Africa.
And this was so important to me, Trevor.
The book is called I Am a Girl from Africa,
not "the" girl, because I know
that my story is one of millions.
And I wanted to make sure that girls who come
from a humble background, such as mine,
are able to read this story.
-And again, representation matters, right? -Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
For them to see what's possible for them.
And so, this is what the campaign is about.
So I hope that, you know, people can support it and...
so we can all empower young girls in Africa,
but also around the world, to see what's possible
when we dare to dream big and we dare
to make a difference in our world.
Well, I think you have done that.
And I'm sure that once people start reading the book,
they'll become even more inspired.
Thank you so much for joining me
on The Daily Social Distancing Show
and good luck.
Thank you so much, Trevor, for having me. Bye.