Daughter of the soil: One woman's dream, a continent's call

Alliance for Women and Girls (AFWAG) founder and CEO, Dr Dr Vongai Nyahunzvi during the premier of Daughter of the Soil documentary in Nairobi on April 11, 2025. [File]

A non-governmental organisation changed her life when she was just a young girl.

Now, Zimbabwe-born Dr Vongai Nyahunzvi, the founder and CEO of the Alliance for Women and Girls (AFWAG), is on a mission to do the same for others.

Premiering the ‘Daughter of the Soil’ documentary in Nairobi last week, in which she stars, Nyahunzvi says there’s a need to tell African stories that are forward-looking.

The 45-minute film traces her journey from a rural township in Zimbabwe to global leadership. Growing up in Norton, a small village in Zimbabwe, poverty and limited access to education were everyday realities.

“When you educate a girl, you educate a nation; this African proverb is a motivation for us to drive transformative and impactful change aimed at empowering girls and women not only in Kenya or Zimbabwe, but across the region,” she says.

Directed by Zimbabwean filmmaker Kudzai Tinago, the documentary weaves personal narrative with a wider advocacy for gender equity. It places women’s leadership at the heart of addressing Africa’s most pressing challenges—climate change, education, and economic inequality.

A snippet of the Daughter of The Soil documentary premier. [File]

Through AFWAG, Nyahunzvi believes in investing in girl-centered organisations and leadership of women and girls.

But, she asks, “Who is supporting these organisations? Who is coming behind them? How do we walk alongside these changemakers?”

“When we support women’s leadership,” she says, “we don’t just address one issue.”

According to AFWAG, the documentary’s release is timely. While progress has been made in closing education gaps across the continent, glaring gaps persist.

“Fewer than half of adolescent girls in countries like Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania complete secondary school,” the organisation notes. “These sobering statistics reinforce the urgency of investing in African women’s leadership as a pathway to long-term change.”

For Nyahunzvi, the message is clear: African girls deserve not just a seat at the table, but the power to build new ones.