We are in one of the breakaway rooms of the conference center at the five-star Kampala Serena Hotel in Uganda, but the conversation is about Luweero, located two hours by road from Kampala.
Natasha Karugire, the eldest daughter of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, speaks breathlessly, her thoughts coming thick and fast, as she moves from one staccato sentence to another.
She is talking animatedly about the feature film, 27 Guns, she is currently making on Uganda’s ‘Bush War’, and 1981, when the young Museveni went into hiding as part of the National Resistance Army (NRA).
“He and 42 other men had only 27 guns between them, but what they had was faith and hope and fire,” says the 41-year-old mother of four, who started out as a fashion designer and has now scripted the film and is directing it. It is expected to premiere in February. When we meet her in September, she has been filming for two weeks, with an all-Ugandan crew and cast.
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Karugire’s creative energy is palpable as she speaks passionately about the project that has seen her literally live in the bush in Luweero, re-enacting the guerrilla war in which her father played a lead role. The NRA was based in different parts of Luweero for five years.
“It’s time we tell our own stories, and not wait for someone to come and tell it in a different voice, from a skewed perspective,” she says of the reason she started her film production company Isaiah 60 in March 2017.
“We have epic tales in Africa, and for us starting with Uganda, we have just such big stories… But you know the saddest thing for me is that our own citizens, a lot of the time, are unaware.”
She laments the tendency among the young to endorse the Western narrative.
“Whenever a story is being told by Hollywood about Africa, it’s so generic, there is a way that it’s told, the song that is played… And in your heart, you are feeling this is just not us, we are not only about this, there is so much more to the people of Africa… I think this film is our way of saying, ‘this is how we say it’.”
<div id="attachment_34773" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34773" class="wp-image-34773" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/27-Guns-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" />A scene from Natasha Karugire&#8217;s film, 27 Guns (Photo supplied)</div>
Growing up, Karugire says she was always artistic. “I draw, I sketch, take pictures and write poetry.”
At university, she studied fashion, design and marketing. She was barely 22, when she started her own business in Uganda’s non-existent fashion industry. She struggled.
“I started out in Uganda, when fashion was not understood,” she says simply. She got married at 24, and started a family. Her eldest child is now 16 and youngest five.
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Her husband Edwin, a lawyer, supported her “strange artistic journeys”.
But throughout her stint in the fashion business, Karugire kept asking herself if she was doing something she was passionate about and that kept her up at night.
“Almost the day I turned 40, something just happened,” says Karugire of her epiphany, that she should make a film about the struggle. Up until then, she had been putting together video clips, culled from old footage, for friends and family who loved them.
“I started reading my father’s books and I prayed, because we are Christians, my first point of call always is to ask God, that’s when I started writing a script for the first time,” she says.
“I realized I could not go to bed, I could not talk about anything else , and that’s when it hit me that this is my passion.”
Soon, Karugire met a producer in England, but “she was patronizing about the story”, saying it would probably be good for Ugandans and the region but not the international market.
Determined, she pressed on and started filming.
“It has such been a walk, quite a journey on so many levels , but right now, our faith is reaffirmed,” she says.
Funding for the film, she says, has come from people who believe in the story.
“But we are still looking for investors,” she tells us at the interview.
In the film, Karugire’s youngest sister, Diana Kamuntu, plays the role of the First Lady.
Talent, it seems, runs in the family.

‘It’s Time We Tell Our Own Stories’

It’s not every day one gets to meet a First Daughter, in the living room of the official residence of an African President.
At the Nakasero State House in Uganda, Patience Rwabwogo is a picture of calm, like the verdant surroundings around her.
An entrepreneur since the age of 23, she operates out of her offices in Luzira, a suburb in Kampala.
“I never thought I would go into business,” begins Rwabwogo.
“When I went to school in the US, I studied Political Science and Development Studies. When I came home, my parents advised and encouraged me to start a business to learn to be independent, and know the ins and outs of the business world.”
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The only boss she had was herself.
“I have always been self-employed and that’s the only world I know. You never go home and say the boss is going to deal with the problem; you are the one who takes all the responsibility.”
She started in commodity trade, buying food produce, selling it and also exporting and selling to local markets. Was being a First Daughter ever an advantage in business?
“It was a disadvantage at times because people don’t really take you seriously, they think you are sort of privileged, that you don’t really need to do this and that was the farthest thing from the truth,” says the mother of four.
“We’ve always learned from when we were young that you make your own way in life and should be valued on your merit.”
Rwabwogo works with her husband Odrek and is primarily into agriculture.
“We have a farm and process dairy products, we sell to the local market in Uganda, and are looking at exporting to the regions.”
Rwabwogo is close to her siblings and says her memories of life in exile, during Uganda’s long drawn-out civil war, are “scant”.
“When you are a child, you don’t look at the big questions in life. We were content and happy.”
Today, her message to young Africans is to stay connected to agriculture, and their land.
“What is important is the connection with the land. Agriculture is easy for Africans to relate to, it’s so very close to our culture… Our identity as Africans is so connected to the land, so our land has to produce for us, be it livestock or crops. It has to be commercially viable, that is the source of our wealth.”
In addition to her business, Rwabwogo also spends “a huge amount of time” serving as a pastor in a church in Kampala.
“That was my own journey,” she says, and you know it is a calling she truly enjoys.

Connected To Her Land

Almost four hours before sunrise in Cape Town, another coastal town, 7,000kms away, in Kerala in south India, wakes up to the sights and sounds of dawn.
This is Kozhikode, where fishermen return ashore from the choppy waters of the Arabian Sea, bringing with them boatloads of fish, stuffed into baskets they then haul on to their bare, bony backs.
They sell the morning’s fresh catch on Kappad beach, made famous by Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama who landed here in 1498, on a voyage from Europe that included stopovers in South Africa and Mozambique before his itinerant tryst with India.
A small, near-derelict stone monument on the beach stands as a lone reminder of Da Gama’s Kerala expedition. The powerful Zamorin rulers of Kozhikode welcomed the Portuguese but kept a close watch on them. The spices were enough reason for the Arabs, the Dutch, the Portuguese and the English to flock to this palm-fringed, leaf-shaped Indian state.
With a population of 35 million and regaled in global travel brochures as ‘God’s Own Country’, Kerala produces ample coffee, tea, pepper, rubber, coconut and cashew. Yet, the state’s most famous exports are its people.
Immigrants from Kerala can be found in any nook of the planet, but predominantly in the Middle East, from where the trade winds blew strongest across the Arabian Sea. The joke in Kerala is if there was a tea stall on the moon, you would be sure to find an enterprising Keralite running it.
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With its strong Arabic influences, in Kozhikode, you find temples designed like mosques; and every home boasting family in the Gulf. As dawn moves to dusk, lilting strains of Sufi music fill the evening air, even as the arterial S M Street (known as Sweetmeat Street) selling red halwa (a sticky sweet) and savory Arabian snacks winds up for the night.
The red, rain-drenched earth, the red sweets and the soulful music beckon any traveler to these shores.
The tea stalls of Kerala, as ubiquitous as shawarma joints in the Middle East, are where newspapers are devoured and politics hotly debated over steaming glasses of tea and crisp dosas (rice pancakes) served on banana leaves.
These are eaten perched on rickety wooden benches undeniably wet from the rains and the leaking thatched roofs. This culinary experience transcends socio-economic barriers, as every Keralite worth his salt would have tried it at some point in life.
It is from Kozhikode that many wannabe entrepreneurs, with dreams and dirhams in their eyes, have boarded the flight to Dubai – that mecca of opportunities – and some to South Africa, where they have made their millions in the little trading hubs of Johannesburg.
Fordsburg, the colorful cultural quarter in Johannesburg, teeming with traders from the subcontinent, has its own glorified Kerala tea stall on Central Road selling authentic cuisine prepared by cooks brought all the way from Kozhikode.
Discerning dosa-lovers arrive in droves to Dosa Hut, a restaurant run by Keralites Judy Joseph and Abhilash Raveendran. Joseph arrived here with $500 in 2005 and never looked back. On weekends, they rustle up as many as 600 rice pancakes a day to expatriates hungry for a taste of home.
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This year, for Onam, Kerala’s annual harvest festival celebrated in September, the two restaurateurs, who now own a slew of eateries in Johannesburg, fed traditional fare to 500 Malayalees (as Keralites are known) at a cultural get-together in Lenasia, an Indian township south of Soweto.
The day-long event featured a live orchestra – a music troupe flown in from Kerala – and dances and skits from the motherland. This convivial communal event every year is a true experience of south India in South Africa.
October in South Africa also saw a performance of Kathakali (classical dance-theater from Kerala) by Arjun Raina, an Indian dancer, actor and playwright whose show The Magic Hour was an interpretation of William Shakespeare’s Othello.
It was watched by an audience all too familiar with the classical art form, which transported them to the oil lamp-lit temples and stages of Kerala, but more importantly to their rich past, and the land and lore they left behind for a country they now call a home from home in Africa.

A Slice Of India In Africa

It is very rare that altruism and art find a common meeting place.
We find both on the 22nd floor of a Sandton skyscraper, where businesswoman and philanthropist Saloni Wahi is hard at work.
There’s aesthetics everywhere in her bright, beautifully-appointed home – the paintings on the walls, the handcrafted pottery in the foyer, even the orange fruit basket she has made with clay.
Unflattering balls of clay turn into ebullient masterpieces in her hands. At this moment, by the kitchen counter, she is moulding what looks like a golf hat, “inspired by a Saturday game of golf”.
This yen to seek inspiration in everyday objects, tapping into her talents, be it pottery or golf, to create “templates” for her work, is perhaps what makes Saloni the purposeful aesthete she is – giving her all to art, and giving her art to all.
Over the last decade since she first became a “potter by chance” in Johannesburg – and it went from pastime to passion – she has made over 70 pieces of an eclectic range of ceramics she calls The Collective that are “often whimsical and light, identifiable by their intricate patterns and fusion of color”.
These contemporary creations will all be part of her exhibitions coming up – on November 9 in Dubai and January 8-9 at the Gallerie Ganesha in New Delhi.
All proceeds from the sale will go to fund another passion Saloni holds dear to her heart – the ABN Education Trust set up in 2011 by her husband, Rakesh Wahi, the co-founder of the hugely-successful CNBC Africa and FORBES AFRICA brands.
As the Trust’s patron, Saloni has tirelessly worked to help the lives of the less privileged. And every pot she makes, no matter how arduous the process of creation, is for them.
In the living room of her home, she shows us Effervescence, a glazed work of art inspired by a paper cup, which took her a tenacious 15 hours to craft. She was at the gym one day holding a paper cup after a workout session when the idea hit her: why not translate it into ceramic?
“When the clay is not talking to you, you cannot make something that satisfies you,” she says, of her intuitive art. “It’s like doing yoga. Pottery stills your mind and is almost like meditation.”
<div id="attachment_34354" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34354" class=" wp-image-34354" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Saloni-Wahi-Effervescense-e1510303686435-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" />Effervescence, Wahis work inspired by a paper cup, that took 15 hours to create. (Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla)</div>
The pieces are like her babies, she says.
“Except you don’t give your babies away, but for me, rather than possessing the piece, it’s the actual process of creating it, and sharing it that makes me happy. I am very passionate about the Trust, and pottery is my second passion, and it was sometime earlier this year that I said ‘why don’t I just combine these two passions’?”
Thus, the concept of “ceramics that care” was born.
“God has been kind to us, so I don’t want to create money from my art, but if I can create funds and use it for my other cause, then I would consider my mission successful,” says Saloni.
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It is something she truly enjoys, as you hear her speak of the chemistry and science – and the infinite patience – that goes into each creation. No piece is like the other.
“I am very adventurous as far as clay is concerned. Pottery is a very loose word for what I create; some of my pieces have minute holes, almost 500-600 holes a piece.
“In fact, I stretch the clay, and push it to its limits. And very often my first teacher Charmaine, and Denise, my second teacher in Parktown North, would always keep a watchful eye on me as they knew that Saloni would always be up to something dangerous with the clay. So I find it works, and there have been instances where I have spent a minimum of four hours on a piece and after making it, it completely collapses but for some strange reason, it’s never put me down. I just start all over again… It makes you resilient towards life in a strange, bizarre way.”
<div id="attachment_34353" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34353" class=" wp-image-34353" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Saloni-Wahi-753-e1510303405687-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="333" />Saloni Wahi at work. (Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla)</div>
When not in Johannesburg, Saloni continues her work in Dubai, where she has been based since 1989.
Originally from Delhi in India, Saloni moved to Johannesburg in 2007 after her husband, Rakesh, along with Zafar Siddiqi, set up the ABN Group, of which CNBC Africa and FORBES AFRICA are a part.
CNBC Africa is celebrating its 10th year, and Saloni has had a stellar role in its success, supporting Rakesh and the business in every way.
Living between their homes in Delhi, Dubai and Johannesburg, Saloni is always on the move.
“I am thankful for the opportunity to experience three different lives in one lifetime. And the three lives are so diverse – our life in India is completely in contrast to the life we live in Dubai, which is again completely different to the life in Johannesburg.”
Whenever she is in South Africa, her first ports of call usually are the orphanages the Trust supports.
“It doesn’t matter whether you are in India or Africa, children are the same everywhere. To me, giving back is integral to my being,” says Saloni.
Despite being a small business, and very conscious of its corporate social responsibilities, the ABN Group has participated in several charitable causes in sub-Saharan Africa since 2007.
The Trust gets its funding from the Wahi family, the ABN Group companies, Trans National Academic Group and through the efforts of Saloni. The Group’s Managing Director Roberta Naicker, along with other trustees, have worked hard to raise funds through various initiatives including ladies events, golf days, auctions and appeals to corporates and individuals who help the needy.
<div id="attachment_34355" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34355" class="size-medium wp-image-34355" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Saloni-Wahi-trust-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" />Saloni Wahi with a beneficiary of her Trust. (Photo supplied)</div>
The group’s focus is three principal activities.
The first is to support orphanages and give opportunities to children in desperate situations for no fault of their own. The Trust mandated to support orphanages that were small and rudimentary and didn’t receive any government grant or corporate support.
When Saloni speaks about Thuthuzela in the township of Alexandra, you can tell this is an orphanage close to her heart. Through her diligent efforts, the Trust first gifted it a minibus in 2012 and then in 2014, helped to move it to a permanent home in Kelvin from “their one-room facility at the back of a local factory”.
“It is creditable how the founders and caretakers of the orphanage have worked tirelessly to help children who would otherwise have died or ended up on the street,” says Saloni.
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Over the years, through the Trust, Saloni has committed significant resources for children in need. The Trust is currently assisting Abangani Enkosini, another Day Care Center in Alexandra, and has provided it a daily soup kitchen, freezers, cupboards, clothes and books, and also waterproofed its facilities.
The Trust’s second objective is to provide bursaries to students, particularly women, for tertiary education including but not limited to financial journalism in universities such as University of Johannesburg and University of the Witwatersrand. Over the last six years, it has provided bursaries to over 30 students to complete their graduation, and has also provided support to the children of its own staff through bursaries for their university studies. Similar bursaries have been provided to students in Ghana, Rwanda and South Africa.
The Trust’s third aim is providing internship opportunities to young Africans for invaluable work experience within the ABN Group companies. Over the last 10 years, over 250 internships have been disbursed by the group. Christina Mhundwa, a recipient of the ABN bursary, is currently in Germany working as a journalist for a leading news broadcaster.
Saloni’s support for all the work has come from the team at the ABN Group including Nola Mashaba, Celeste Meidecen, Thameshan Sooriah and Sue Gounden.
In addition, the Trust participates in other activities that resonate with the core values of the founders. One such was supporting an organization in Kenya working to get young girls off the streets to re-settle them from an existence of abuse into a dignified life.
“It was at CNBC Africa’s All Africa Business Leaders Awards in Rwanda last year that I was introduced to Damaris Too, a successful businesswoman doing amazing work in Kenya. She was one of the contenders for the ‘Philanthropist of the Year’ award. I was so touched by her story – she basically worked with getting young girls off the street. It was very sad to hear that for want of a pretty dress or just a bag, these girls were led astray,” says Saloni.
Back in Dubai, Saloni got to work, creating a WhatsApp group, and mobilizing her friends and their friends to make donations in kind for the girls.
“I was hopeful I would get a few suitcases of assorted clothes and bags and shoes. But lo and behold, thanks to the power of social media, I had almost a container-load of stuff. The entire consignment was sent to Kenya, and since then, we have sent a second load,” says Saloni, proving a kind gesture can go a long way.
Philanthropy is not new for the Wahis. Hailing from an illustrious business family in India, Saloni says she has seen acts of kindness from a young age. Marrying into an equally-philanthropic family has allowed her to continue to do social good all her life.
“My great grandfathers had established charitable trusts in India and I have seen the family’s involvement in schools and hospitals in North India that benefitted children from disadvantaged families. Their work has outlived their time on earth… For me, as a woman, if the work my husband and I are doing is carried forward and built on by our children, I would consider myself blessed. Both children have been involved with the Trust through their own contributions. Sidharth, our son, is a Trustee, while our daughter, Shweta, a young fashion designer, has raised significant funds through her own initiatives,” says Saloni.
Last year, in India, Saloni and Rakesh set up “a corpus for Class 4 employees at the National Defence Academy” and earlier this year, set up “a fund for caddies in Dehradun” (near the Himalayan foothills), as they are both “passionate about golf”.
“We set up a trust in the name of my mother-in-law [Shobhana Wahi], again in Dehradun. Wherever we get an opportunity, we always try and give back.
“You come alone, you leave alone. What you take along with you is your name,” she says.
Saloni’s mission for the next few years is to do as many exhibitions as she can across the cities she travels and lives in.
“I know in South Africa, a lot of people are doing good work, and if anyone has a charity event and is looking for pieces, I would be very happy to give my pottery, so long as I know the funds these pieces generate, are going for the right cause. I have set a very high target for myself,” says Saloni.
As we conclude our meeting, it’s hard not to ask Saloni how she manages to live in so many cities and call each of them home, to which, she laughs: “I have a non-conventional entrepreneurial husband, and just as I create pieces of pottery, his passion is developing people and creating businesses. I mould clay, he moulds people!”

Hands That Care

I am inordinately held up in Manhattan’s unpredictable traffic even as Bisila Bokoko waits endlessly for me at the Les Ambassades patisserie in Harlem. She has promised to show me around the African-American neighborhood with its vibrant alfresco cafes, arty hotspots and cultural hubs.
She is about to finish her third cappuccino and a plate of Senegalese rice when I show up, hoping she hasn’t left. But despite the two-hour wait, she’s a picture of calm.
We soon walk the streets to Apollo Theater, the legendary Harlem performance hall, ending our May evening jaunt at Red Rooster, the restaurant run by Ethiopian celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, another famous African export. The place is packed for a week night and there are many regulars by the stylish smoke-filled bar who wave to Bokoko.
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All along, we have been chatting about Africa, a continent she visits more than three times a year. Her kohl-lined eyes light up every time she mentions her umbilical cord connection to the land of her dreams.
Bokoko is many things at the same time – businesswoman, motivation speaker and TV personality – but she is also a wine entrepreneur, and very much like the boutique wines she sells – “wines with an African accent made in Spain”.
Born in the port city of Valencia in Spain to parents from Equatorial Guinea, Bokoko lives in New York – in a penthouse apartment in Manhattan – but straddles continents, sometimes doing as many as six flights a week. She calls herself “a cultural hybrid”.
“I live out of a suitcase, but you really live within yourself. The suitcase is irrelevant, I am happy and home wherever I am,” says Bokoko. The secret, she says, is devoting the first four hours of the day to her body, mind and soul.
“I am at the gym at five every morning. I pray, meditate, exercise and organize my day. It’s always about efficiency and focus.”
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Work often takes her to Valencia. Her wine business has been profitable and she recently invested in a 19th century building, “like a castle”, in Spain for her winery. Currently, she sells 12 different categories of wine and 40,000 bottles a year in Spain, China, Latin America and some parts of West Africa.
Besides her eponymous wines, she is also founder of the Bisila Bokoko African Literacy Project, bringing books and libraries to children in Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe. She is soon opening a library in Senegal, and South Africa is also on the cards for 2018.
“Most of the African stories are being lost. I was born in Spain by accident – my parents were there only because of the political situation in Equatorial Guinea. That is why I am so passionate about the libraries project. I was always experiencing Africa through books. Before I went to Africa with my body, I traveled with my mind. That’s why I want to gift that to the children there,” says the 43-year-old and mother of two.
The first time Bokoko stepped foot in Africa, was when she visited Ghana, the day she turned 35, as “a birthday gift” to herself. Her tryst with Africa was about to begin. It became her mission to change the image of Africa abroad.
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She had moved to New York from Spain at the age of 24, whilst doing an internship for the government of Valencia in international trade. She went on to complete an MA in International Relations in New York, while at the same time helping companies in Valencia do business in the US.
As the Executive Director of the Spain-US Chamber Of Commerce for seven years, she worked closely with leading Spanish brands such as ZARA and Mango.
Bokoko’s lawyer-father still lives in Equatorial Guinea. Her greatest blessing, she says, are her brothers. One of them is an ex-banker living in Panama; she also has a brother who runs his own consultancy firm in China.
Bokoko travels the world for speaking engagements and also owns Bisila Bokoko Embassy Services International, a boutique consultancy firm in New York.
“My biggest fear was to be an entrepreneur. I was in a comfort zone, with a paycheck and an institution to fall back on. But now, I work for Bisila Bokoko, I am my own boss,” she says.

‘A Cultural Hybrid’

“The world needs a lot of help,” sighs Lilian Ajayi-Ore at the other end of the line in New York the Friday evening we speak to her from Johannesburg.
“If we are being completely candid, we have to sacrifice personal moments to do some of the things we all want to,” says Ajayi-Ore, founder of the Global Connections for Women Foundation (GC4W), a recipient of the Best of Manhattan Charity award for three years.
As she speaks, you can hear Ajayi-Ore’s year-old son Alexander Emmanuel in the background.
“As a mom, you never get an off day,” she laughs. “But he is the youngest of all the people I support.”
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You can sense the adulation in her voice, both for her son and her other “priorities” – the young people she trains and the women and girls she creates opportunities for through her foundation, which has a reach of 3.5 million people worldwide.
“I am a women and girls global advocate, who believes in the importance of creating programs that provide a unique opportunity to assist them in succeeding in life. I am also a believer in partnerships and collaborations that will essentially create more open doors for women and girls to succeed,” says the 34-year-old go-getter from New York, originally from Nigeria.
The reason for these belief-systems could be her upbringing by a strong mother who was a single parent. She says her mother, Chief Temitope Ajayi – and her contributions to her community – was the inspiration for GC4W.
“She is also known as ‘Mama Diaspora’,” says Ajayi-Ore on her mother, who connects and creates job opportunities for the youth in Nigeria. “I could go on and on about her.”
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Currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, Ajayi-Ore is also a Harvard graduate and professor at New York University, School of Professional Studies.
More recently, she says she created and designed “the very first ‘Teach Gender Equality’ course and ‘Planet 50/50’ project on Microsoft”.
“This is to enable a global collaboration that fosters an environment where students can play a role in creating solutions for promoting gender equality and women empowerment,” states Ajayi-Ore.
She previously worked at the United Nations (UN) in New York, representing the Mission of Nigeria. She also spoke to people in the NGO space to see where she fit in.
That’s when she had an epiphany and decided to create a global connection and work to create solutions where inequalities lay. Ajayi-Ore visits Nigeria twice a year and also has plans for programs in Africa.
<h3>More Africans In The Diaspora</h3>
Iman is a supermodel and entrepreneur from Somalia. One of her country’s most famous exports, when she first arrived in America, people assumed she was “African royalty”. She also started her own line of cosmetics. The combination of her successful business and modeling career has made her very famous and respected.
Lupita Nyong’o is a multi-talented actress best known for her role in the Hollywood hit 12 Years a Slave. Born in Mexico, she was eventually able to move to Kenya. Early in her career, Nyong’o hit lead roles in film productions and movies, taking several awards home, including an Oscar. She is also a film director, having written and produced several of her own works.
Eunice Cofie is an entrepreneur, originally from Ghana, who combines the use of traditional African medicine with modern science to create a brand of products. Using her knowledge in chemistry/molecular biology, and her wits, she founded Nuekie, an innovative health and beauty company for people of color. She was the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader in 2012.
Rebecca Enonchong is a technology entrepreneur who founded the company AppsTech. Originally from Cameroon, she moved to the US in her youth. Her career grew quickly. In 1999, she founded AppsTech serving over 40 countries.
Adiat Disu, honoree of the 20 Youngest Power Women In Africa 2014 on forbes.com, is an entrepreneur and fashion designer born in Nigeria. Also the founder of Africa Fashion Week New York, as a brand strategist, one of Disu’s goals is to spread and promote African brands and culture to the world. Disu believes helping other entrepreneurs achieve their own dreams is just as important as reaching her own.
 – Compiled by Arvind K Pillai

The Right Connections

Off Kampala’s chaotic arterial streets, we are on a dirt road with speed bumps that are large mounds of red earth. The red leads to a yellow building up a slope with awkward barbed wire fencing on its compound walls.
We are at Kiira Motors Corporation’s offices in Ntinda, in northeastern Kampala, home to what the company calls ‘Africa’s first electric car’ and ‘Africa’s first solar-powered bus’.
Outside the main building, a large white bus is parked under a makeshift shed. A scaled-down model of the same is placed under the stairway leading up to the offices. In the distance, a profusion of plantain trees; and a searing sun at 9:30AM.
The bumpy roads to Kiira are in a way akin to the journey ahead for this automobile start-up, ever since the green transportation initiative it kick-started in a little corner of Uganda.
“It’s an uphill task but we are working round-the-clock to deliver on our promises to our nation and the world,” says Allan Muhumuza, Vice-President, Marketing &amp; Sales of Kiira, on the company’s mission to build eco-friendly mobility solutions for urban masses in a country of about 40 million.
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It all started in 2007 as an extra-curricular activity by a group of students and teachers of the Department of Engineering and Mathematics led by Professor Sandy Stevens Tickodri-Togboa and Paul Isaac Musasizi, currently CEO of Kiira, at Uganda’s Makerere University.
Tickodri-Togboa was head of the department and, together with Musasizi, decided “the paradigm for training university students should be changed, as by the time they graduated, they didn’t have the skills for a working world”.
So they decided to start various extra-curricular projects for students after normal class hours.
Along the way, they were invited to be part of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) initiative with the aim of designing and producing a five-passenger plug-in hybrid electric vehicle targeting the Indian market.
Makerere was “the only participant from Africa”, and as part of the project, eventually developed the two-seater Kiira EV, aptly the color green.
The financing came from the Presidential Initiative Fund for Science and Technology Innovations, and the electric car designed and built in Uganda for the first time was launched by President Yoweri Museveni in 2011.
“The original idea was to use the electric car in the Makerere University campus,” recalls Tickodri-Togboa.
In 2014, the team built Kiira EV SMACK, a sedan its makers say is ‘Africa’s first electric hybrid vehicle’; and thereafter in 2016, the 35-seater Kayoola Solar Bus, again ‘a first in Africa’.
“That we have talent in Uganda has been demonstrated with minimum resources… and we also have very good natural resources,” says Musasizi, the engineer-entrepreneur behind Kiira.
<div id="attachment_34060" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-34060" class=" wp-image-34060" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Uganda-electric-car-e1509349192781-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" />A prototype hybrid sedan is being ripped apart at the Kiira headquarters. (Photo supplied)</div>
The government of Uganda, acting through the Uganda Investment Authority, has now allocated 100 acres of land for a vehicle assembly plant expected to open in Jinja, a town in the eastern region of Uganda, in 2018.
In contrast to the used expensive imported vehicles on Uganda’s roads, these will be factory-fresh vehicles made in Uganda.
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Right now, Kiira has the three prototypes, and is looking at 305 units in the first year of production. These will mostly be pick-up trucks and buses.
The idea is to also convert the masses using public transport – mostly the ubiquitous matatus and boda bodas.
“We want to shift the market from 14-seater matatus to this. But most of all we want to reduce traffic and congestion. Our buses will be bigger to seat more people,” says Muhumuza, also an engineer.
“We realized that if we are to solve Africa’s traffic woes, the biggest need was to address public mass mobility, as that’s where the volumes and problems were. But also at the same time provide sustainable green solutions… Our emphasis was on the technology, to show that Africa can build solutions for Africa and these can be futuristic as well.”
At the time it was built, the solar bus cost an estimated $150,000 – it has solar panels on the top that powers lithium-ion batteries. If mass-produced, costs will come down.
“It’s a capital-intensive project and we are open to get tech and financing partners,” says Muhumuza, adding Kiira is in advanced talks with some technological partners.
“We are seeing a niche, a special place in public mobility in urban spaces that can be addressed by green buses,” says Musasizi.
East Africa’s automobile sector seems on track for more news. In neighboring Rwanda, there are reportedly plans to set up a Volkswagen manufacturing plant.
Outside the offices of Kiira, the prototype hybrid sedan is being ripped apart by men in blue overalls and being re-engineered. The car is a mere skeleton of its former self, but its journey on Uganda’s bustling streets, powered by an African sun, may just be about to begin.

On The Road To A Green Future

The Java House café at The Village mall in Kampala is teeming with customers as smiling waiters serve coffee as hot as the afternoon mercury.
Amos Wekesa, who has run two of Uganda’s most successful tour companies, Great Lakes Safaris and Uganda Lodges, for the last 16 years, is here with friends, chilling in military style shorts and a t-shirt with the words ‘I&#8217;m So Uganda’ on it. Within minutes of speaking with him, it’s clear he is a walking-talking ambassador of his country.
“I have never boarded a plane in the last 10 years without ‘Uganda’ on my chest,” says the amiable 44-year-old. “I encourage every Ugandan to do the same. No one can talk about Uganda better than Ugandans, and everyone should help spread the message.”
With an annual income of $6 million from his companies, Wekesa says he has been fortunate, but has had to work extremely hard. The day we meet is his first day off in four weeks – he started it by running 10 kilometers and slept through the rest of it before heading to Java House.
The whole café seems to know him – customers and staff stop by his table to shake hands and ask about his most recent mountain expedition or his next trip across the Nile.
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Wekesa, born into a family of smugglers in Lwakhakha on the border of Uganda and Kenya, says this is a world away from the life of penury he knew growing up in the 70s. Daily provisions were scarce and from the age of seven, Wekesa would smuggle rations like sugar and coffee from across the border to sell illegally in Uganda, sleeping with his many siblings in thatched houses that leaked. He never went to school until the age of 10, or even wore a pair of shoes until much after.
“The day of a hungry man is an extremely long day. If hunger can’t inspire you, then nothing in life can. And I was hungry for success,” says Wekesa.
Today, he owns properties across Uganda and hopes to build a five-star hotel in Entebbe before he turns 50. He already has two-and-a-half acres of land allotted for this purpose.
Every year, through his companies, he also helps an increasing number of Indians – forced to flee Uganda to the United Kingdom during Idi Amin’s regime – return and re-settle in Uganda.
“Most of them were young and angry when they left in 1972, but are happy to see the changes in the Uganda of today,” says Wekesa, who helps reconnect them with the friends, colleagues and homes their families left behind. By 2022, Wekesa says he aims to “have 5,000 of them returning”.
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The tourism industry helped Wekesa find himself. Until age 28, he did odd jobs – starting out as a sweeper earning less than $5 a month – but his experience as a small-time tour guide led him to save $200 to open his first business, Great Lakes Safaris.
“Uganda is the most diverse country in the world. There’s no other that has as many fresh water bodies… and then the great climate and fertile soil.”
Although Wekesa believes tourism in Uganda has “not yet begun”, he sees a lot of hope as the government knows its potential as a good driver of the economy. Forever the optimist, he says tourism has the capacity to generate as much as $12 billion a year.
The father of three is also a lover of sport, having played competitive tennis “until about five years ago”.
“Competence in sport helps you make better judgments in life. You have to fight for your position and that’s what a businessman does. It helps you understand teamwork.”
He encourages his children to play sport but admits they will never understand the hardship of his childhood.
“My mother is still alive,” says Wekesa, “but cries every time she sees me, as when I was a baby, because of the poverty, she had wanted to kill me but stopped herself when she had a dream one night and somebody told her, ‘don’t touch that child’!”
Luckily for Uganda she didn’t.

‘If Hunger Can’t Inspire You, Nothing Can’

We are at Barclays Africa’s steel-and-glass offices in Africa’s richest square mile, Sandton, talking about a world far, far away – in rural Africa.
A world where Zimbabwe-born Sazini Mojapelo, Group Head of Corporate Citizenship at Barclays, raised by a single mother, first started, in the remote communities of her home country where subsistence farming, women-headed households and rural to urban migration were the norm.
Her work with an NGO led her to a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the University of Cape Town and subsequently, a job with the government.
“It became quite important for me to get into policy and understanding the way public-private partnership works, how policy frameworks are developed and governments function,” says Mojapelo.
She soon founded Hand in Hand, and grew the organization beyond South Africa to countries including Swaziland, Lesotho and Zimbabwe helping women grow their small businesses and supporting them with micro-financing.
A corporate career was on the cards.
“For me, it was important to have experience from government, civil society and the private sector. I wanted to get into all three areas of private-public partnership; the tri-sector conversation. To make a sustainable and meaningful contribution in the areas we operate in, it does not take one player alone.”
For Mojapelo, it had to involve the communities as well – the voices of the people.
“When I worked in government I did really feel the responsibility of caring for the people and their livelihoods. The sense of purpose is very strong, but the inefficiencies that come within that space are very crippling, where things don’t move forward, and the political element does not help as well,” says Mojapelo.
When she got the opportunity to join Barclays in 2015, she wasted no time.
“At Barclays, we look at how we can be good corporate citizens in the communities we operate in… We have introduced a strategy founded on the principles of creating shared value. Basically what that means is how we are able to have a commercial competitive advantage while driving the social agenda and creating impact.”
The bank’s Shared Growth strategy was launched in 2016, looking at education, enterprise development and financial inclusion across Africa.
For education, Mojapelo categorizes the youth as employed, under-employed and unemployed.
“If you look at the employed, most young people do get employed but you find they are under-employed – where a doctor is working at a call center; they have a job but they are not doing the job they studied for. And then you got those who are Not in Education Employment or Training who fall in what we call the NEET category; who are unemployable, because either they have dropped out of school, they do not have a skill that can enable them to move into the next phase of their life and that category of young people is where the most focus should be, and the ability to start looking at how we use technology to create and open opportunities for those young people,” says Mojapelo.
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She also admits to several anxious moments when she moved to the corporate world.
“I had some anxiety on my side in terms of my ability to land effectively and be able to achieve the agenda that I really want to drive from a corporate perspective. The biggest part for me was literally looking at the agenda, that I have a personal agenda of creating a meaningful change in people’s lives and creating that kind of social impact. So it was key to change the strategy and introduce a way of working that made business realize that the social agenda is a business agenda.
“So in Barclays, you find that big corporate clients will work with us based on how you treat the ESG (environmental, social and governance) element. It has become very important within the business.”
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One of Mojapelo’s passions is financial inclusion – especially of women.
“For Barclays, I think it’s a space we dream about disrupting and in its entirety that is integrated banking but it’s really from a shift in the mind-set of asking what the customer wants and how do we service them better.”
Far from the farms and fields of Zimbabwe, to the smart Sandton boardroom we are in, this Harvard Business School graduate has her sights set on one dream – a better Africa.

‘The Social Agenda Is A Business Agenda’

In Mauritius, sugarcane plantations, occupying roughly a third of the island, stand tall and proud. Just like Viju Gowreesunkur, who owns quite a few of them, and is a man who has tasted sucrose and success on the windswept island.
On some days in these parts in Central Flacq, the gentle rhythm of the swaying green plantations and cool sea breeze is interrupted by the staccato sound of an old engine roaring to life.
Locals know this to be Gowreesunkur, out for a drive in one of his many classic Rolls-Royces or cabriolets decked in colors that stand out in the ubiquitous green. The timeless appeal of the sugarcane fields and the classic cars take unsuspecting passersby to another era.
“I love old things, old houses, old furniture… and old cars that make me nostalgic,” says Gowreesunkur, who at 63 has almost as many vintage cars parked in his front yard.
“When you see an old car, it brings back memories of your parents, an old film… the cars are that and so many things, you can’t really express it.”
When FORBES AFRICA meets this sugarcane farmer in the airy patio of his unpretentious two-storeyed Mauritius home that he has been staying in for more than three decades, he is seated on a jaded cane sofa in mustard-colored shorts and a grey t-shirt.
His sunglasses are perched on his forehead but his eyes are fixed on the collection of cars, or his “children”, in front of him. There are no pricey artefacts in his patio – his valuables are all out in the dirt, metal and motor shining in the morning sun.
The saying ‘you don’t see classic cars in a therapist’s parking lot’ must hold true for Gowreesunkur, as he is a man for whom therapy is this cathartic sight that greets him every morning; that makes him grateful for the gift of life, as he deeply inhales in the crisp saline air and the sweet smell of money.
“If I don’t see them, I miss them,” he says.
The antique enthusiast says he has at least 50 vintage cars in his collection, a record in all of Mauritius. A respected senior at Mauritius’ Vintage and Classic Car Owners Association (VCCOA), he regularly attends meets and races. He says there may be about five serious vintage car collectors in the country.
In Gowreesunkur’s dark, musty garage, under greasy white sheets, are such jewels as a stunning burgundy 1950 Opel, six Chevrolets, six Jaguars, three horse wagons, a black Daimler that belonged to the Governor of Mauritius in the colonial period, and three Rolls-Royces, including a 1956 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud “believed to have belonged to Marilyn Monroe”.
For his 55th birthday, his wife Sarita, formerly a mathematics teacher who now runs the couple’s craft shop at the departure lounge of the airport in Mauritius, got him an old red BMW, and for his 60th, a blue Jaguar convertible from South Africa.
Gowreesunkur’s trusty mechanics keep them all in working order, although the family as a whole don’t mind getting their hands greasy and dirty.
You need to look at the ground for any evidence of the mechanics – all you see are pairs of legs and grimy gumboots as they are perennially under the cars fixing them.
Born in Vacoas, near Curepipe in Mauritius, Gowreesunkur, whose family goes back four generations to the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, grew up privileged. Parents from both families were landowners who owned cars, plantations and horses.
“My granddad owned racehorses. My father also used to ride horses. My dad’s sister is the first Indian lady to drive a car in Mauritius, and was also the first to cut her hair and ride a horse,” laughs Gowreesunkur as he speaks of his 90-year-old aunt who is still alive. Memories come thick and fast.
“My father was also a champion boxer on the island, but he died when I was little and while doing his medical studies in France. Our house was on five acres and we even had a gym and stable in the huge colonial house.”
Gowreesunkur’s first car was a beige Citroën that he has now given up. Every car he owns has a story. He bought the spotless white 1933 Rolls-Royce in England five years ago for about £20,000 (approximately $25,500 today), and had it shipped when the government allowed the import of vintage cars.
“I had a friend in England, I phoned him and said, ‘can you see the car for me’. He traveled the whole day to reach there and sealed the deal.”
He says he is very particular about checking out the vehicles before he buys them, as he has been duped several times.
“I had bought a 1920 Chevrolet and got a good friend from Port Elizabeth in South Africa to pick up the car. I had bought it based on a picture of the car [I had seen]; but my friend called to say it was useless, and that trees had grown inside the car. So I had to resell it for a very low price,” says Gowreesunkur. Yet, such setbacks haven’t stopped him from indulging in more collectibles. He next wants to invest in a Buick and a Bentley.
“[To buy them], you don’t use the money you need, but spare money, if you have it,” he says.
“He always says ‘this is the last car we are buying’, but these cars are the pulse of our life now,” says Sarita.
“I drive for pleasure… When you drive an old car through the sugarcane fields, you don’t feel anything, you don’t feel the bumps, it’s incredible!” adds her husband.
But ask him the total worth of his car collection and he vehemently shakes his head: “I don’t want to know how much I spent. Please don’t ask me.”
And which is his most favorite car? “You can’t pick a favorite, they are your children too.”
Seated next to him during the interview, his second daughter, Pevashi, 30, a veterinarian trained in Budapest, nods in agreement.
She is on holiday but has a busy schedule looking after her father’s 15 horses on the ranch, as well as the stray dogs that also find a home in an enclosure in their backyard. Gowreesunkur’s elder daughter Venita, 33, is married and settled in the Canary Islands. The two will eventually inherit his car collection.
But Gowreesunkur has plans to build a museum for his cars, the first of its kind on the island. Sarita says he has already invested in the land by the house with the chimney, the river and the sugarcane plantations. But for now, Gowreesunkur is taking it easy.
“I enjoy the island life, drinking wine and good food.”
He also knows Mauritius inside out.
“I have also been cycling around the island for so many years,” he says.
Gowreesunkur started his career in the country’s biggest sugarcane factory. At the same time, he studied to acquire a diploma in auto-mechanics. There were some detours along the way.
“I went to look for a place in Belle Mare [on the east coast where most hotels are] and brought my five horses. Somebody was building a hotel, and asked me to do horse-riding [for guests at] the hotel. That turned into my hobby as a 30-something. And then it [became] a business – all the hotels asked me,” he says.
“Then it became too hectic and I stopped working at the factory. I looked at my cars and thought I don’t want to wait 60 years to retire and ride them. The CEO, also a friend, of the sugarcane factory told me to sell my horses to him, and keep all the benefits; he gave me 20 acres of sugarcane plantations. At the time, sugar was good money. Then I started buying more land. I bought about 20 or more prime properties near the airport.”
Gowreesunkur did so well he returned the 20 acres to his CEO-friend. He had kept them intact, unsold.
“Nothing is yours. You have to be happy in your mind. Your mouth is so little, how much can you consume?” says Gowreesunkur.
This farmer-entrepreneur’s compassion has seen him rescuing stray dogs on the streets – they pose a real public problem in Mauritius – and bringing them home.
His horses still do the rounds at the five-star hotels and some of his cars are on permanent display at the properties.
It costs him a lot of money to register and maintain his cars. Yet, they come alive in his hands, as he resuscitates them with fuel and passion.
Thus the story of a Mauritius farmer whose riches are not in a bank vault but in a grimy garage filled with nostalgia no currency can buy.
<ul>
<li>Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla</li>
</ul>

The Sugar And Petrol That Drives A Farmer

Gandhi may have had varying views on the consumption of tea, but it is for a tea launch that I visit Satyagraha House, located in the serene suburb of Orchards, Johannesburg, where the lawyer-turned-activist and India’s Father of the Nation lived for two years at the beginning of the last century.
It was here that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi stayed until 1909 and developed Satyagraha, his political philosophy of passive resistance. He lived with his friend Hermann Kallenbach, a German architect who built the house in 1907.
The French travel company, Voyageurs du Monde Africa, bought Satyagraha House in 2009 and had it restored and opened to the public as a museum and guesthouse in 2011.
<div id="attachment_32795" style="width: 333px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32795" class="wp-image-32795" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Gandhi-house-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="323" height="242" />Satyagraha House (Photo by Methil Renuka)</div>
The house, with its strong South African design influences, retains the original thatched roof, chimney, a garden with indigenous plants, and a vegetable patch at the rear. Gandhi famously adhered to a strict vegetarian diet and an austere life, so the guesthouse conforms by serving only vegetarian food, and now bespoke tea.
Through exhibited photographs, plaques, panels, and popular Gandhi motifs such as the spinning wheel, cotton fabric and his circular glasses, the home is a visual essay of his domestic life in South Africa for those two years.
The cool weather and the tranquility here offers the perfect setting for a cup of tea, preferably under the two century-old trees in the backyard, appropriately named Pride of India.
It is in this backdrop you get five minutes with the lithe and effervescent Swaady Martin, the entrepreneur who in 2012 founded <a href="http://www.yswara.com/">YSWARA</a>, a home-grown African luxury brand now present in 17 countries. Soon after our meeting, Martin is jetting off to Paris for yet another launch of her teas.
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In South Africa, she has a factory at the Cradle of Humankind and a store at the culture-rich Maboneng Precinct. Martin calls her bespoke tea at Satyagraha House “lemon verbena chai”, sourced from natural ingredients and created by her.
Home for her is different places, but Martin has been living in South Africa for the last seven years. She was a regular visitor at Satyagraha House when it opened. That’s how the inspiration for the collaboration came about.
The 39-year-old, whose father is American and German and mother is French, Guinean and Ivorian, and who calls herself a citizen of the world, has a genuine interest in African culture, and a deep love for India.
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_32794" style="width: 253px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32794" class="size-medium wp-image-32794" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Swaady-Martin-by-Gary-Stephens-243x300.jpg" alt="Swaady Martin" width="243" height="300" />Swaady Martin (Photo by Gary Stephens)</div>
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2017/07/07/first-africa-world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">First Africa, Then The World</a>
“I am grateful that my DNA is mixed, as this is how I feel. I have an Asian soul,” says Martin, who confesses her immense love also for Gandhi.
“I have always been an admirer of Gandhi as the visionary and also as the loving revolutionary. And to be able to able to create this tea for Satyagraha House and for Gandhi is an immense privilege.”
It’s a happy coincidence; I tell Martin her brand YSWARA has an Indian ring to it and means God in Hindi. She agrees.
“It talks about the ethos of our company and the soulfulness that is really the thread of everything we do, that same soulfulness is also in Gandhi’s philosophy and the lifestyle that I relate to.”
Africa may be the largest exporter of tea in the world but Martin says the current entrepreneurial climate in Africa is tough.
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“In the context of Africa, it’s challenging to be an entrepreneur everywhere. Being a female entrepreneur in Africa is especially challenging, it’s not for the faint-hearted,” she says.
Despite the tepid environment, Martin continues with her journey of creating “extraordinary teas” that now form part of any visitor’s date with history in a heritage home in Johannesburg.
&nbsp;

“Being a female entrepreneur is not for the faint-hearted”

United States-based speaker, author and futurist Jack Uldrich was in Johannesburg recently for the 2017 Future of Health Summit held by FORBES AFRICA and Philips. Amid all the talk about AI eye robots, virtual nurses, the potential for blockchain to transform electronic health records, and even the inception of ‘uber-ambulances’ as one doctor in the audience proposed, Uldrich spoke some more to FORBES AFRICA about what the future holds for technology, healthcare and life:
Technology companies will lead the future of healthcare. Tell us more. 
From my perspective, it’s all about data. Amazon, Google, even Facebook, know so much about us, they are going to figure out how to use data to keep us healthy, and they are going to figure out how to make money keeping us healthy, using data.
Which means people will probably live a lot longer – how is technology going to aid longevity? 
Longevity is a wonderful problem to have but it is going to impose serious societal pressures on government. In the West, our social security systems are geared for a life expectancy of below 80, but we are going to be living to a 90 and potentially a 100. Africa might not be that high yet, but society is going to have to deal with this; public policy-makers will have to deal with thinking about this issue yesterday. 
What will be interesting is we might begin to rewrite social contracts, in the sense that if we live to be a 100, maybe it will make sense for young parents to spend a lot more time, when they are in their 2os and 30s, understanding that they will be able to work full-time from 40 to 90 years of age for example. There will be a lot of different potential solutions to this and we have to get creative.
8,000 days of the internet; what will another 8,000 days mean for the internet? 
This is where people have to understand exponential growth. Without a doubt, the internet has been transformative, but we are still in the early days of this revolution, and we are next going to move to the Internet of Things, and the transition is as though we are looking in the internet. Information and data is going to be all around us and we are going to be able to leverage that data to understand our health better, and to use that information to engage in healthier behaviour that keeps us healthy.
<div id="attachment_32467" style="width: 253px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-32467" class=" wp-image-32467" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Jack-Uldrich-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="243" height="364" />Futurist Jack Uldrich</div>
What next after the Fourth Industrial Revolution? 
Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things are, in my mind, interchangeable terms, but we are just at the beginning. Today, 20 billion physical objects are connected to the internet, by 2020, an estimated 50 billion, and by 2030, a trillion. But that means our wearable devices, our electronic health records, our rooms, are all going to be connected, and we are going to be able to leverage that data to do, think and act differently about our health in the very near future.
Will robots ever replace us fully? 
I don’t think they will fully replace us. The way I think about technology and humans is this: we just celebrated the 20th anniversary of a computer beating the world’s best chess player. Computers have gotten significantly smarter in the last 20 years but there is still one thing that can still beat the world’s most powerful computer in chess, and that’s an average chess player using an average computer. Human experience, intuition, plus technology take us to a higher level and when I think about the future of physicians, other healthcare professionals, those that thrive are going to be those that leverage technology and let technology do what it does really well, and then we will focus on the more human aspect. And for healthcare, this is really important. People don’t just want the best treatment; they want to be heard, they want to understand their options for disease and treatment. Could a computer do that? Yes, but I think that humans for the foreseeable future will be significantly better.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2017/06/13/create-jobs-age-robots-low-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">How To Create Jobs In The Age Of Robots And Low Growth</a>
Are virtual nurses considered far more effective than real nurses?
<blockquote>If I have any advice about the future, it is to learn how to embrace ambiguity.</blockquote>
We frequently like to think the world is going to happen one way or another way. And virtual nurses are a wonderful example. In the West, many patients prefer being checked out by virtual nurses, and that’s because they don’t feel judged, they can ask as many questions, and because of that, they are getting better information. So let’s allow the virtual nurses to check people out of the hospital, which then frees up the nurse to spend a lot more time on the human aspects and taking care of patients. The human touch is really important to the recovery process and if we can have more healthcare professionals engaging in real human activities, that’s a wonderful thing.
What about the new <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/06/googles-ai-eye-doctor-gets-ready-go-work-india/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AI eye doctor</a> that Google has come up with, and putting to work in India? 
Google has collected millions of images of the eyes of patients with diabetes, and from those images, we can now engage in preventative actions that will prevent potentially hundreds of thousands of people from going blind. They are going from India to Africa to the entire world.
Your take on <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2017/06/13/in-the-race-toward-self-driving-cars-gm-has-something-apple-and-googles-waymo-lack-a-car/#7b9c2196764f" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">self-driving cars</a>…? 
In every city around the world, the average automobile sits idle 22 hours a day so that is a waste of capital resource. In a world of driverless vehicles, we are going to be able to have fewer vehicles, but we are still going to be able to get people from their destinations, and what this means is people will start trading ownership of cars for access. But these vehicles will be clean, safe and cost a fraction of what we spend on transportation. 
In the future, transportation is going to be thought of as a service much like electricity, in the sense that you will just pay for the transportation that you need, for the kilometers you drive or are driven.
Will the seat configurations change in a driverless vehicle; do we still sit in the front? 
If you own a driverless vehicle, you can sit wherever you like, and for the near future, you will sit where you traditionally sit, but as you grow more comfortable with it, you might sit in the back and then we are going to start redesigning, and instead of all of the seats facing forward, we might actually face one another and have conversations with our peers, but here’s where it gets interesting. People will still own vehicles, but because of blockchain technology, they might be able to share that vehicle with strangers and rent out that vehicle when they are not using it, and make money off of that vehicle.
Objects that will alert us to heart attacks before it happens; is this technology available now? 
The idea of a heart attack ringtone is being worked on. There is a doctor in San Diego named <a href="http://www.mddionline.com/article/ringtone-tell-you-you-are-having-heart-attack-thats-no-joke-heart-doc-tells-stephen-colbert" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dr Eric Topol</a> who has spoken about this idea for a few years. Computer chips are becoming small enough that we can already put them in the human body, and those computer chips have sensors and we can now detect the proteins that float around in our bodies that are indicative that you are about to have a heart attack. So that computer chip will be able to alert you and your healthcare provider even before a heart attack happens, and you will be able to take preventative action. 
It’s not science fiction, it is science fact.
What is the zaniest thing you have heard about the future, say five years from now? 
Within the next five years, the possibility that we are going to be able to begin 3D-printing human organs is a possibility. In 10 years, the odds increase even more. But in five years, there is a chance it may happen. What is crazy is today a car can be a 100 years old, but you can keep it operating because you just get it a new motor or a new pump, but we might begin thinking about the human body that way. Your part might go, but we might just print you a new one using your stem cells that we know will work in your body. But we need to begin to think that just because we can, is this necessarily a wise path that we can take, and this is where we need philosophers, citizens and politicians, etc to engage.
Do we really need to live that long? Is it going to be economically viable? 
At this stage, what I tell people is let us give up on answers, let us just stick to questions for the time being. We need to ask better questions about the future, and this idea of longevity and 3D-printing human body parts… we need to ask a lot of questions about these and many other issues.
Where is Africa in terms of advances in tech? 
Africa is behind today but the potential to rapidly catch up to the US is a real possibility because virtually every technology is not only getting better, it is getting more affordable. In many cases, counter intuitively, the infrastructure of the West and our powerful political organizations might actually slow down some innovation. And I think the opportunity for Africa to not only catch up but to also potentially leapfrog in some areas is a real possibility, and I think the West should have some humility and begin looking to Africa for innovations that I think are really going to surprise us, just as the way <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/news/east-africa/2017/01/04/mpesa-economic-impact-on-kenya/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mobile payment took off in Kenya</a>. I think the West might need to catch up to Africa in some cases as well.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2016/07/01/industrialization-ditched-tech/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Industrialization Ditched For Tech</a>

‘Not Science Fiction, But Science Fact’

Ameenah-Gurib147

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim: Scientist, Entrepreneur And President

Indian billionaire and chairman emeritus of Max Group, Analjit Singh, a <a href="/cover-story/2015/07/01/man-pouring-millions-rich-slice-africa/">FORBES AFRICA cover in 2015</a>, says he is increasing his investments in the hospitality sector in South Africa. On a visit to Johannesburg mid-May, Singh spoke to FORBES AFRICA of his bias towards the Cape. In four years since setting up a base and “home away from home” in the Franschhoek winelands of Cape Town, he has “17 land holdings here and substantial hectarage under wine cultivation”. He established the Leeu Collection here, and now owns three hotels, five restaurants and an award-winning wine business.
<blockquote>
I am a citizen of the world. Why must I only be in India?
</blockquote>
says the Founder and Chairman of Max India Limited with diverse interests in life insurance, healthcare, health insurance and senior living.
He has been ranked by FORBES as one of India’s richest, with a net worth of $1.2 billion. Singh is a partner in Mullineux &amp; Leeu Family Wines, which produces wines in the Swartland wine region, some 800 kilometers north of Cape Town. This is overseen by winemaking duo Chris and Andrea Mullineux. He runs a 17-key country house and winery on Leeu Estates, a 68-hectare farm in the Franschhoek valley, and secures wine from 50 vineyards in Franschhoek and Stellenbosch. In the charming one-road village of Franschhoek, he also renovated Leeu House into a 12-room hotel that’s “very Cape Dutch” featuring thatched roofs, gables with plaster art, shutters and stable doors. He has also installed on both sides of the large garden, statues of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi – bought at the Everard Read art gallery in Johannesburg.
<div id="attachment_31779" style="width: 1031px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31779" class="wp-image-31779 size-full" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Analjit-Singh-Leeu-Estate-Manor-House-Façade-photo-supplied-e1496233976739.jpg" alt="" width="1021" height="512" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Analjit-Singh-Leeu-Estate-Manor-House-Façade-photo-supplied-e1496233976739.jpg 1021w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Analjit-Singh-Leeu-Estate-Manor-House-Façade-photo-supplied-e1496233976739-300x150.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Analjit-Singh-Leeu-Estate-Manor-House-Façade-photo-supplied-e1496233976739-600x301.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Analjit-Singh-Leeu-Estate-Manor-House-Façade-photo-supplied-e1496233976739-768x385.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1021px) 100vw, 1021px" />The Leeu Estate Manor House. Photo supplied</div>
Incidentally, the gallery has just opened in Franschhoek as well, in partnership with Leeu Collection. At the Heritage Square piazza a few meters away, he opened Marigold, the town’s first Indian restaurant, and, again a first for Franschhoek, he set up Tuk Tuk, a craft beer microbrewery. He says it is now the most happening place in Franschhoek. “I am not done yet in Franschhoek,” says Singh. “I was looking for new vistas and personal renewal, so Franschoek appealed. I have found such connect and sense of place here.”
<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2015/07/01/man-pouring-millions-rich-slice-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The man pouring millions into a rich slice of Africa</a>
With a “substantial, high-end presence” in the winelands, Singh’s boutique winery targets the export markets of the United Kingdom, some parts of America, Europe and is just about making an entry into Asia.
Singh, who fell in love with South Africa when he first visited the country in 2010 for the FIFA World Cup, spends more than three months a year here. “I fired myself as the chairman of most companies [in the Max Group], I have no operational responsibilities. My level of involvement is almost negligible,” says Singh.
South Africa’s recent downgrading and all the noise in the current political environment is clearly no deterrent for the international investor. “We can be victims of analysis paralysis… If you spoke to someone in France 10 days ago, they would say don’t invest in France. Look at it now, they say ‘invest in France’,” he says.
He has also now acquired properties in Lake District, Florence and London. With a total of “68 keys combined in all properties” around the world, he says this will grow to 105 by the end of next year.
Singh’s long-term vision is to venture into game parks and safaris in this part of Africa, and he is also currently looking at the education space in South Africa.

Analjit Singh

Indian Billionaire Singh Not Done Yet In South Africa

It is perfectly possible to be in Mauritius and not see a spot of sea.
As a business traveler, if you are staying in any one of the upscale business hotels in the central business district of Ebene, where most men in sharp suits ponder the fate of the island as a gateway to Africa, the white sandy beaches and rhythmic Sega dances in the charming fishing villages are but a distant laidback dream.
This is an economy working overtime, with a new ambitious government and a population weaning off idyllic vistas of just the surf, sand and sea, and wanting much, much more – quicker.
“This country got rich too soon,” says Sattar Hajee Abdoula, CEO and Head of Taxation and Advisory Services at Grant Thornton in Mauritius. “So everyone is aspiring to be rich.”
We are driving back in Abdoula’s white Mercedes convertible after a sumptuous three-course dinner in the plush, green, valley-facing home of one of Mauritius’ most-successful senior bankers.
“The mind-set has totally changed in the country,” says Abdoula matter-of-factly, pulling into the driveway of the classy Hennessy Park Hotel in Ebene Cybercity where a room can cost up to $220 a night.
It’s Friday night, and the hotel’s parking lot is packed to the rafters. The swanky customers and swarthy bouncers are all headed to the swish Backstage Lounge Bar in the hotel’s ground floor that has at its entrance an arty installation of a collage of inverted guitars, and once you walk in, meandering hallways that lead to live music and the bar, where hordes of young men in leather jackets and women in lacy tank tops writhe in unison on the dance floor.
Somewhere in the distance, away from the island’s commercial heart, the high tide and the moon, resembling a nail in the sky, succumb to nature’s chorus, as the fierce waves lash on to the shores of this green island in the Indian Ocean.
The land once home to the dodo is a biodiversity hotspot. You hear inspiring stories of people moving to organic farming and the growing prevalence of permaculture; even tales of the pink pigeon that has been heroically saved from extinction. Everywhere you look, swaying sugarcane plantations, and the sweet smell of money.
There is a profusion of green on land and blue in the ocean: and both economies are being revamped by the country’s scientist-president, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim.
The natural resources of Mauritius were a big draw card for CIDP, which runs a sophisticated facility here for high-performance research and clinical trials, sourcing active ingredients for pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies around the world.
“Mauritius is the hotspot for diversity, with a multi-ethnic population we can access for trials,” says Claire Blazy-Jauzac, Group Managing Director of CIDP.
The island is a rich repository of fauna and flora known for several indigenous species – and not just the extinct dodo. Its farming practises are rated among the best in Africa.
“Africa is lanes and streets and cities behind Mauritius when it comes to agricultural practices,” says MD Ramesh, President and Regional Head South and East Africa for Olam, Africa’s leading agri-business.
“Mauritius has a great talent for agriculture and is far better than most of Africa.”
Durban-based Ramesh says he is seriously considering moving to Mauritius when he retires and is actively seeking a Mauritius passport.
Visitors to Mauritius’ gleaming new airport terminals will see the first signs of a country prospering from tourism dollars. For those seeking retirement, the climate – both political and weather – is conducive, says Ramesh.
To most, the tax haven is a haven for more reasons than one, including the comfortable lifestyle it offers, access to amenities and most importantly, the fresh seafood. The juicy prawn curry and rice in any of the eateries in the village of Moka, called the heart of the island, is worth arriving in the country for.
You also can’t miss the bounties of the land. Robert Gordon-Gentil converted a sugarcane field into a thriving restaurant business 15 years ago. Chez Tante Athalie at Pamplemousses in Grand Baie serves authentic Creole cuisine on weekdays for lunch. In its front yard are hulking trees Gordon-Gentil planted with his own hands when they first started; he sources all his ingredients for the restaurant from this garden. Here, he also displays his collection of vintage cars. The foreigners and diners love the assortment of cars and cuisine. Occasionally, Gordon-Gentil also drives his old cars to town, making sure they don’t stutter to a stop on the way.
Surprisingly for a small island-nation of 1.3 million people, peak-time traffic on the arterial roads, especially in Port Louis, is a nightmare. It’s best to set aside enough time to traverse between different parts of the island that the locals categorize simply as East, West, South and North. Also watch out for stray dogs that are rampant and a serious problem in Mauritius.
Getting around is expensive.
“Mauritius presents a real business case for Uber,” says 26-year-old freelance photographer Keshawve Jeewon, who runs his company GrandMoments, offering photography and videography services by the picturesque mountains of Flacq district.
He drives his dad’s old Ford pick-up truck when scouring the island for work, but owns an Audi A4 sedan for his social sojourns.
“An Uber-like service should be started as soon as possible. Someone will get rich very soon,” says Jeewon, almost as if he had been toying with the idea himself.
In the distance, as we drive past verdant Verdun, he symbolically points to Mauritius’ second-highest mountain named Pieter Both, characterized by a rocky formation at the top resembling a human head, in thought.
It’s in contemplative mode looking for new horizons of opportunity, like young Jeewon, and the country itself.

Author: Renuka Methil

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA