Ifeoma Charles-Monwuba (2026), Grace and Grit: My Journey of Faith, Purpose and Leadership. Lagos: May Publishing Limited.
Grace and Grit: My Journey of Faith, Purpose and Leadership is a powerful and deeply moving memoir that stands as both a personal testament and a beacon of inspiration for women navigating ambition, faith, and leadership in challenging contexts.
In the book’s closing affirmations, Ifeoma Charles-Monwuba captures the essence of her journey: finding the delicate rhythm between *grace* and *grit*—where strength is not the absence of fear but the resolve to press forward, faith is a deliberate choice rather than a fleeting emotion, and leadership is revealed not as a crown but as a humble calling rooted in service to people and purpose. These profound reflections in the Epilogue, titled “A Letter to the Young Woman I Once Was: Embracing Your Becoming,” are so resonant that readers may benefit from encountering them early and revisiting them at the close.
The book Grace and Grit arrives at a critical moment, when African women’s voices in international development, diplomacy, and leadership remain underrepresented. Far from a polished hagiography, this memoir offers raw candour and emotional honesty. Charles-Monwuba openly shares her vulnerabilities—academic struggles (particularly in Mathematics and Igbo), family financial hardship, the devastating loss of a child, health crises, workplace harassment, and the constant tension of balancing career ambition with cultural and familial expectations—rendering her story profoundly relatable and human.
