Braving the Odds

An intimate and inspiring memoir by CNBC, AABLA All African Business Woman of the Year




Having been a multi-award-winning CEO of a large international bank, Mizinga Melu knows what it's like being the only woman in the boardroom. It's not an easy ride. From navigating untaught corporate politics, finding her skills and experience routinely questioned, and having to work harder just to have her voice heard, her resilience has been constantly put to the test. However, she was primed to overcome hardship.




This isn't just a book about braving the odds in the boardroom-it's about how an ordinary girl from Zambia overcame such setbacks as the loss of her mother while still a young girl, failing out of nursing school as a young woman, and being denied an executive role she knew she was the most qualified for as an aspiring banker. Melu warmly invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her-from her childhood growing up on a farm and the growth of her deep and unwavering faith, to her years as a global banking executive balancing the demands of career and motherhood while living internationally.




Braving the Odds is a story about being a daughter, wife, mother, woman of God, and an African businesswoman in a white man's world. Through its telling, she hopes to inspire women and girls around the world to not let anything stand in their way.