BIOGRAPHY
I was born to the late Prof. K. E. Agovi ( a literary scholar of
African and Literature
Studies) and Mrs. Elizabeth Efua Agovi ( A principle of a High School in
Ghana). I was raised in
Ghana , a beautiful, tropical country found in on the coastal shores of
West Africa. I attended the
University Primary and Junior Secondary School, and Archbishop Porter Girl's
Secondary School
(equivalent to Junior and Senior High School) during which I was
the Assistant Senior Head Girl
and an Awardee of a National Scholarship Program in which I attended a
National Science Program
specially organized to help the 'girl child' education in Science. It was
there that I discovered my
passion for science ( Biology in particular), and decided that I wanted
to study science in College
perhaps move on to Medical School to become a gyneacologist or Graduate
school where I plan to do
more studies on the Human Genome. This quest led me to move to the United
States, in August of
1999, to join my Godmother and Guardian, Dr. Rosalind Hackett, a Lindsay
Young Proffessor and
a Scholar of Religion, teaching in the Religious Studies Department of
the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville.
I just got back from a mini-term trip in Coral Reef Biology in the Florida
Keys where I
have finally decided to declare a major in Human Genetics and a double
minor in Ecology and Marine
Biology. I am currently a sophormore at the University of Tennessee
( UT) and an avid member of
Amnesty International, UT chapter. I am also the Acting President and Vice
President of the
African Students Association on campus.
When outside the classroom, I love to read ( science fiction, adventure
and detective),
write poems, work in the garden, explore, listen to music and surf the
world wide webs on my
computer.
OTHER INTERESTING 'FACTS' ABOUT MYSELF
- My full
name is Afiba Manza-Azele Agovi. My first name Afiba means 'Friday
born' ( because I was
on a friday) and it is the feminine form. Since I was named after
my Paternal Grandmother I bear
her name Manza- Azele which has a unique story of its own.
My Grandmother became the only third female child of my Great-Grandparents
after two other
female children, who had been born before my Grandmother, died during birth. My Great-
Parents thought that my Grandmother was the other two children who kept
on coming back to them.
So it was believed that my Grandmother was being reincarnated and so to
keep her from going back
the third time they gave her a strange name ( For it is believed that she
would have been too
ashamed to carry that name with her to the 'underworld'..... the land of
our ancestors) to keep her
with them. Hence her name became Manza- Azele. Manza means
'third girl' (sequentially) and
Azele means 'the earth' making it 'third girl of the earth'
Agovi is my surname and last name.
- I have been stung by a scorpion before........survived it!
- I have never had measles before.
- My Family consist of my mother, Godmother, three maternal aunts,
two maternal uncles, three
sisters, a brother, two nephews, a niece and about fifteen cousins!
- I saw my first Snow Fall in Knoxville, Tennessee.
- I am 'crazy' about Convertibles.
- Favourite color is Brown and not ORANGE! ( UT color)
- Cannot float or swim properly!
- Manza means 'water' in Zulu and it is the name of a gentle ( as
a lamb) creature in Spanish