Chichi Ngozi's childhood dream was to become a nun, a lifestyle choice her parents would never allow. Instead, she studied education in Owerri, in the heart of Igboland where she was raised. At the age of 24, a twist in an intimate relationship pushed her toward a new life in South Africa. She now lives in the suburb of Sunnyside in Pretoria with her husband and three-year-old daughter.

You know, here in South Africa, if you wear white clothes you can wear it from morning ‘til night and even the following day, and if you decide not to wash it you won't wash it. But in Nigeria, you can't wear white because the dust is too much. The heat is too much. It's very, very hot. And we usually have electricity problems. You know, we say ‘NEPA take light’ – that's the power company – when our electricity goes off. You can bath in the morning and when you come back you have dust on your legs. You come home and you start washing, cleaning shoes. Here in South Africa you can go out in the morning and come back in the night and even if you don't feel like bathing, you will not bath because you will not be feeling the heat.

And the way they are dressing here is totally different from Nigeria. There, when you walk the streets wearing a miniskirt you feel embarrassed. They'll be shouting, ‘Hey! Didn't your mother see you when you left the house? You want to show all the men that you are ashawo?’ That is the word for a loose woman. You will feel so embarrassed!

Here you just mind your own business and you can wear anything you want. The most a boy can do is to whistle at you or hoot the horn in the car. But in Nigeria they can even be throwing water at you when you are walking. I'm telling you. There are so many things South Africa does better than Nigeria.

It's just that if you don't have money, yoh! You will die in South Africa! And you need to be very hard-working. If you are not hard-working you will end up in the street being a seller, selling your body up and down.