May Ayim (3 May 1960 in Hamburg – 9 August 1996 in Berlin) is the pen name of May Opitz (born Brigitte Sylvia Andler); she was an Afro-German poet, educator, and activist.

Opitz wrote a thesis at the University of Regensburg, "Afro-Deutsche: Ihre Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte auf dem Hintergrund gesellschaftlicher Veränderungen" (Afro-Germans: Their Cultural and Social History on the Background of Social Change), which was the first scholarly study of Afro-German history.

Combined with contemporary materials, it was published as the book Farbe Bekennen: Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (1986).

[3] In 1986, it was the basis of the book, Farbe Bekennen: Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (published in English translation as Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out, 1986).

[3] Opitz edited this with Katharina Oguntoye and Dagmar Schultz, having added many accounts by contemporary Afro-German women.

Contemporary Afro-German women discussed their struggles growing up black in Germany, and how individuals explored their homeland and multi-ethnic identity.

A film documentary, Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992, covers her life and this period of growing Afro-German identity in the culture.

[3] After a visit to Ghana, where she met her paternal family, she returned to Germany and trained as a speech therapist.

She continued to write articles and poetry exploring the issues of multi-ethnic peoples in Germany and personal identity.

[4] After working strenuously to prepare for Black History Month in 1996, Ayim suffered a mental and physical collapse.

[7] She is the subject of Linton Kwesi Johnson's elegiac poem "Reggae Fi May Ayim" on his 1999 album More Time.