During the choir's tour of the United States, the group was abandoned by their escort in Cleveland. Bishop Daniel A. Payne, of the African Methodist Church (AME) in Ohio, a former missionary in the Cape, organized the churchgoers to provide for the abandoned troupe's continued stay in America. Although the choir wished to attend Howard University, they were made to settle for a church scholarship to Wilberforce University, the AME Church University in Xenia, Ohio, in US. Mannya accepted the offer. At the university, she was taught under W.E.B Du Bois, a major Pan-Africanist. After obtaining her B.sc degree from the Wilberforce University in 1901, she became the first black South African woman to earn a degree.