A FLY Girl’s Guide To University: Being a Woman of Colour at Cambridge and Other Institutions of Elitism and Power

by Lola Olufemi, Odelia Younge, Waithera Sebatindira

A FLY Girl’s Guide to University is a collection of memoirs, essays, poetry and prose from four women of colour who studied at the University of Cambridge. It is a multifaceted calling out of the wrongness underpinning their shared experience at Cambridge, and the experiences of others in similar institutions throughout the UK. But they describe it best: ‘The purpose of our book is simple: we believe that our lives, our experiences, and our voices matter, especially in a place of power, pervasive whiteness and exclusivity. Our voices not only deserve to be heard but must be because the ‘Cambridge experience’ of a middle-class, white, cisgendered, able-bodied man is not the only one. Ours cannot be silenced.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction

90 pages, Paperback

First published January 24, 2019

Reviews

[Valerie Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Critiques are that there are noticeable typos & it’s not really a guide.

[Kibriya Mehrban · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful collection of essays, at once illuminating and aware of what it can't cover. A pleasure to read through, even so many years after leaving university.

[Sohane Amira · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was gifted this book by my mom when I decided to accept an offer to study my postgraduate degree at Cambridge, she knew I was anxious about the racial dynamics and was fearful that returning to such a white institution would feel like taking a few steps backwards in my work to heal racial trauma. Because of this it was difficult to not relate to the essays and poems in the book! Thankful for this book!

[samihah ★ · Rating 5 out of 5]

ive never wanted to take a highlighter to a physical book so badly, this collection is just full of gems 🥺

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply life-saving when in self-hatred at Cambridge.

[Anjali · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, painfully relatable and easy to understand collection of essays from some remarkable people! It’s not exactly a guide, but I really enjoyed the variety of topics covered, and I learnt a lot.

[lilin23 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so grateful for this collection of essays *cries* it gave me fresh eyes and introduced such valuable vocab. Before reading this, I knew there were certain issues / situations I was uncomfortable with, but this book gave me the much needed vocab to put my thoughts into words.

I love to read to feel, and the essays made me feel waves of all kinds of emotions. The authors write with fervour that inspires. Highly recommend to read with a pen/highlighter to digest your own thoughts/growth while reading!!

I will be returning to this over and over again to refresh; to find words; to find strength and comfort.

p.s. the title is somewhat misleading as it's not really a ~how to guide~ but more of reflections.