Finalist of the 2014 International Book Awards in Nonfiction. Evolving Through Adversity is a brilliant, inspiring and unforgettable memoir from an African talent about the life lessons one learns from adversity, and the sheer determination to overcome and use life’s challenges to be the best version of yourself. A debut memoir of great ambition, Seconde Nimenya’s Evolving Through Adversity tells a story of her family and her fight to get an education in one of Africa’s poorest countries, Burundi. This is the story of a woman’s struggle against her cultural hindrances, and that of a resilient girl who left home to attend boarding school and dreamed of a better life in a culture that considered girls and women as second class citizens. In the 1990s, Seconde Nimenya immigrated to North America, starting out as a refugee in Canada, as a result of a civil war in her native country. In 2004, she moved to the United States, pursued and obtained her MBA. In Evolving Through Adversity, readers will be delighted by Seconde’s childhood stories told with humor and wit, and yet, profoundly impactful no matter where you are in life. In the second part of the memoir, Seconde shares her immigration story, the challenges of being uprooted and leaving her family and everything she knew behind, and she had to adjust to a new country and a new culture. Throughout the book, you learn how to overcome adversity no matter what they are, find your passion, and ultimately honor your true self. Evolving Through Adversity is a brilliantly written memoir of place, culture, race, and the internalized shame that often comes from being a refugee and having to start over. This book is a transformative, deeply moving story from an unparalleled new voice of inspiring clarity, leadership, and poise. Today, Seconde Nimenya is a diversity and inclusion leadership advocate, coaching organizational leaders on the topics of race relations, cultural competence, and overcoming unconscious bias in the workplace and our communities.For more information about Seconde Nimenya’s work, visit: https: //www.secondenimenya.com
