How a chance meeting with Brian Dawkins helped an African immigrant land a book deal to share his life story

Ashley Shumba, who was born in Zimbabwe and immigrated to the United States in 2012, has a knack for helping the right people.

Brian Dawkins and Ashley Shumba. Dawkins met Shumba after Shumba drove him to an event in 2018, and helped Shumba turn his life story into a book.Read moreCourtesy of Ashley Shumba

by Gabriela Carroll

Published June 10, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET

Limo driver Ashley Shumba got lost trying to pick up Brian Dawkins at Philadelphia International Airport. He was already running 30 minutes late, so it felt like a disaster scenario. Shumba didn’t make his way to Dawkins until almost an hour had passed, long after Dawkins had disembarked from his flight.

“I finally saw him, and he was so tired and frustrated, waiting for an hour for his driver to come,” Shumba said. “When he got in the car, to me, it was a very awkward situation, because I was late to pick up a client, and my client was a bit tired and almost late to his next event.”

Shumba didn’t even know who Dawkins was when he initially picked him up — he was an Eagles fan, but as an immigrant who came to Philadelphia long after Dawkins’ playing days, he didn’t recognize him.

But Dawkins changed his mindset, and asked Shumba about himself on the drive up to Villanova for a charity golf tournament. The story he heard blew him away — so much so that he spent an extra hour in the car with Shumba in the parking lot of his hotel to hear more about his life, which is now detailed in Shumba’s new book, Dreams of a Village Boy: My Journey From Africa to America.

“Had I just left my attitude where it was, we would have never had the conversation,“ Dawkins said. ”I would have been quiet, I would have put on my headphones, and then we would have never had the conversation. But because in that moment, I chose to fix my attitude in order to then have a conversation with this gentleman, we were able to then go down the path of his story, that spoke to me.”

Shumba was born in Mberengwa, Zimbabwe, and immigrated to the United States in 2012. He has a tendency to help people find their way around — after a British man asked for directions in his hometown, the two struck up a conversation, and he offered Shumba the opportunity to participate in an international exchange program with fellow youth across Europe. After moving to Namibia, he stopped to fix the car of a man who turned out to be the American ambassador to Namibia, who offered to help him navigate the process to immigrate to the U.S.

Initially, Shumba wanted to be an actor.

“When I arrived in Hollywood, to me, I thought maybe you could just arrive in Hollywood and then audition for any film or any musical and then get a part,” Shumba said.

He quickly realized it was far more competitive than it appeared, and considered moving back to Africa because of how expensive it was to live in the U.S., or moving to New York, but the flight to Philadelphia was far less expensive, so he came to Philly instead. In Philadelphia, he met his wife, became a citizen, and a driver. Now, 48, he lives in a house he built in Coatesville.

And thanks to Dawkins, he’s a published author.

After hearing Shumba’s life story, Dawkins connected him with a writer who could help him turn that story into a book.

“For me, it was the willingness for him to consistently go out of his way for folks,” Dawkins said. “He didn’t have to do some of the things that he did, somebody on the side of the road, and everybody else is moving and going past him, and he decides to go help him out …

“He found time, time and time again, and because of that, he then came in contact with not just anybody. He came in contact with specific people that allowed him to do some of the things that he was looking to do.”

Dreams of a Village Boy — which includes a foreword from Dawkins, of course — was released on Feb. 20 and is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and more.