Aziza Kibibi (pictured above), whose infamous father, director Aswad Ayinde (pictured below), impregnated her five times, just received a $10,000 scholarship from the female empowerment organization Soroptimist to use towards her college degree, reports the New York Daily News.
The grant monies, which is part of the organization’s Women’s Opportunity Awards program, are given to women to use towards the betterment of their lives. The grant typically goes towards helping women meet educational goals so that they can lay a more concrete and stable foundation for themselves career-wise.
The recipients of the award are typically women who have struggled through adversity in their lives via social barriers or personal crisis. According to Soroptimist, “Many of the women that have received the grant have overcome enormous obstacles, including poverty, sexual and domestic violence, the death of a spouse, and substance abuse.”
Kibibi is a prime example of someone who has beaten the odds and somehow managed to rise up even though she was sexually abused from ages 8 to 23 at the hands of her own father. MTV Music Video award recipient, Ayinde, is best known for directing the music video “Killing Me Softly” by the musical group, The Fugees. Kibibi was consistently abused by her father, as was his mother and her siblings. Ayinde was a self-proclaimed prophet, who strived to create a race that carried his pure bloodline. He beat and enslaved the women as well as prohibited them from outside schooling. Over the years, Ayinde sexually molested five of his seven daughters and fathered six children with them. Ayinde was finally arrested and has been behind bars since 2006. He is currently serving a 90-year sentence for the crimes against his family.
Kibibi in the meantime, is keeping her head to the sky, pressing forward, raising her three children by her father, one of whom passed away due to inbreeding medical issues, and another son by a recent relationship. As of recently, Kibibi is working on a communications degree and reportedly works as a chef. She runs her own blog and is hoping to raise money through the kick-starter website Indiegogo, so that she can publish a book about her life struggles. Kibibi already has a working title for her planned penned work: Unashamed: A Memoir.
