In new book, Akunyili-Parr interrogates an African Mother’s Fight for Soul of a Nation

To honour the memory and inspirational life of her mother, Dora Akunyili, whose life and legacy inspired millions by facing down misogyny and battling corruption in Nigeria to a standstill, Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr has penned down an intimate memoir titled, I Am Because We Are: An African Mother’s Fight for the Soul of a Nation. The book, which was released in January 2022, and hit bookstores across Nigeria on Friday, February 4, 2022 under the title, I Am Because We Are: The Story of Dora Akunyili.

Told in her voice, from the personal lens of her daughter, this is the story of what shaped her to the woman she was.

Inspired by the African philosophy of Ubuntu — the importance of community over the individual — the book gives an in-depth view of how Dora Akunyili took on fraudulent drug manufacturers whose products killed millions, including her sister.

It explores how Dora, a woman in a man’s world, became a cabinet minister, but had to deal with political manoeuvrings, death threats, and an assassination attempt for defending the voiceless.

But beyond this, the book explores the fullness behind the woman known as the Amazon. In the authors word’s in describing the book, “while the world saw Dora Akunyili at the peak of her strength — a warrior with a gap-toothed smile whose light-skinned oval face was crowned with a colourful head-tie that doubled as armour against incessant attacks against her values and also her life — I saw the complexity that was hidden from sight. This is the story of her multiplicity: the story of my mother.

“I have spent much of the last four years dedicated to bringing her story to life in this memoir — each step in researching and writing her story has allowed an unwrapping of her — the girl, the daughter, the dreamer, the wife, mother, warrior — her motivations, her struggles, and celebrations, The result is this book, “I have spent much of the last four years dedicated to bringing her story to life in this memoir This is the coming together of her parts. I am happy to share this story that it might inspire the whole” said the author, Chidiogo while speaking about the book. “I believe stories matter, our stories matter, and this is one of such stories.”

‘I Am, Because We Are’ illuminates the role of kinship, family, and the individual’s place in society, while revealing a life of courage, how community shaped it, and the web of humanity that binds us all.

“It is truly uncanny to pull the feat that Chidiogo did with this book. She successfully entered into the full character of her mother and convinces the reader that Dora is the one speaking. This emotional tour de force her daughter Chidiogo wrote has secured the eternal legacy of Dora like no other book can.”

“Get this book. No. Get two of this book so someone else gets the blessing of reading the story of a family that Nigeria and the world can never forget,” says Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education.