Vicky Nyanga-Ndiaye is a womanist theologian, writer, poet, community facilitator, speaker, social entrepreneur and the founder of Project Esperanza, a charity based in Edinburgh that offers practical, culturally appropriate, race sensitive, faith sensitive, and trauma informed support and specialist services to migrant families of African heritage.

She has been writing poetry for many years and has published work. Her creative practice entails writing about the experiences of women, particularly migrant women from Africa in Europe. She draws from many places for inspiration; firstly from her own upbringing where there is a strong presence of resilient women, secondly from the matriarchal communities in Africa that were before colonisation and slavery – they inspire her sense of pride as a Black and African woman; thirdly from the lived experiences of the women around her within her work context where she is committed to empowering them through well being mentoring sessions and poetry writing to positively impact their well being.

Her inspirations are rendered through poetry and writing that are reflective of the social and political issues that affect women in this contemporary climate. Her recognition as a poet came as a direct result of the unprecedented success of her poem ‘Unpolished and Black’.

Her work appeared in PENning Magazine in 2016 and in the Scottish PEN anthology to mark their 90th anniversary celebration in 2017. She has been invited to read ‘Unpolished and Black’ at the Edinburgh Book Festival and Solas Festival also in 2017. She is always humbled that her work has been published alongside the work of some leading names from Scotland’s literary community. 

She lives between Scotland and Senegal with her husband and three daughters.

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