Zeinab Badawi (Arabic: زينب بدوي; born October 1959)[1] is a Sudanese-British television and radio journalist, educator, civic activist, and writer.

[7][8] Her great-grandfather, Sheikh Babiker Badri, fought against Kitchener's British forces at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 and pioneered women's education in Sudan.

She was educated at Hornsey High School for Girls in North London, before studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at St Hilda's College, Oxford.

[11] In 1988, she moved back to London to pursue a full-time one-year MA degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in Politics and Anthropology of the Middle East (her professors were P. J. Vatikiotis for politics, Malcolm Yapp for history and Richard Tapper and Nancy Tapper for anthropology),[12] graduating with distinction in 1989.

[10] After graduating from Oxford University, Badawi was a researcher[13] and broadcast journalist for Yorkshire TV from 1982 to 1986, during which time she also presented the weekly regional consumer advice show Help Yourself.

[15] Badawi was awarded an honorary doctorate by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in July 2011.

It is informed by interviews Badawi conducted with African scholars and cultural custodians, whose expertise, observations and wisdom are threaded through the book.