I Will Try

Legson Kayira

In 1958, inspired by the life of Abraham Lincoln and the motto of his secondary school, a 16-year-old Malawian village boy, named Legson Kayira, decided to travel on foot to America to further his education.
Walking barefoot and carrying food, an axe and two books, he travelled more than 2,500 miles through the African bush crossing four countries in search of an education. Most people would have given up, but not Legson. Braving lions, hyenas, snakes, elephants and language differences, he kept going reaching Khartoum in the Sudan, where American consular officials, amazed by his remarkable walk, helped him to travel to the United States to take up a scholarship at Skagit Valley College in Washington State.
I Will Try records his early life and the details of his epic journey in his quest to realise his seemingly impossible dream. Published in 1965, while Legson was studying at the University of Washington, it became a best seller in the United States and England, and was translated into numerous other languages.
Legson went on to study history at Cambridge University in England. He wanted to return to Malawi to help build a post-colonial state, but was prevented from doing so by the despotic Dr Hastings Banda. Instead, he remained in England where he pursued a career in the British Home Office, and wrote four more books.
This volume contains the original text, photographs, as well as a memoir by Legson’s widow, Julie Kayira, written after his sudden death in England in October 2012. At the time of his death Legson was working with Rivonia Media Group on a feature film of I Will Try.
As vivid as the day it was first published some 50 years ago, it continues to teach young people in Africa and the world over that, if they are determined enough, there is nothing they cannot achieve.