A member of the Dinka people,[1] born in a Dinka village, Zenab studied at the Holy Cross Mission before traveling with Daniele Comboni to Khartoum in 1860. Fluent in Dinka and Arabic, she assisted the missionaries in developing a dictionary and grammar of the Dinka language.[2] She traveled to Verona to study before returning to Khartoum in 1873 to teach in the mission schools.