I'M NOT A NURSE

I am called ejechi in Ukwuani, meaning "to leave and return".

As a child, Jessica's natural ability to tell stories entertained her friends and frightened her

widowed mother. After being kicked out of every Nigerian home available to her, Jessica arrives

in Ghana, where she meets a nurturing man who offers her Mars Bars and an Australian

marriage. Her new world provides a life of conditional luxury - if she wants to earn her own

money, she must become a cleaner or a nurse. When a kind stranger encourages her to study film

instead, her husband supports her - until he loses his lucrative job and becomes violent. Jessica

returns to Nigeria, convinced that she can make the most of her Australian education there -

until she remembers that as a Nigerian, she can reach her goals anywhere.

I'm Not a Nurse is the memoir of a displaced storyteller who must survive homelessness,

violence and racism across two continents to come into her own power as a black African

creator.

'We make things happen' - that is the sound of Nigerian blood.