May Ayim was born in 1960 in Hamburg to a German dancer and a Ghanaian medical student. As a child, she was raised by a white German foster family. She later reconnected with her father and his family in Ghana, an experience that influenced her life and work significantly. In 1992, she adopted her father's surname as a pen name. Ayim worked as a poet, educator, and activist, engaging with themes central to the Afro-German experience. She died in Berlin in 1996.