In this episode, we travel to Gorée Island in Dakar to speak with Tijan Watt, an entrepreneur and impact investor building a bold future for African innovation. Rooted in a transatlantic heritage that includes Tuskegee and Senegal, Tijan shares how both his African and Black American family history, HBCU education, and deep cultural pride shaped his path. Through his work with Wuri Ventures, Tijan champions local entrepreneurship, risk-taking, and creativity grounded in African realities. He reflects on moving to Senegal to invest in talent, nurture community, and reimagine development from within. For Tijan, meaningful innovation starts with love, local knowledge, and the freedom to imagine—and build—on your own terms.

JUMP TO’s

1:48 Jam Tan! Tijan shares the Pulaar phrase for “peace only” kicking off the conversation with peace.

5:50 The importance of Black excellence and the legacy of ancestors, including Tijan’s great-aunt Norma, a researcher on the polio vaccine.

9:21 Talking about his own academic and professional journey, including his time at Howard University.

11:46 Tijan shares his initial impressions of Senegal.

20:57 He explains the concept of entrepreneurial capital and the importance of taking risks and creating jobs in Africa.

40:09 Tijan discusses the concept of a "winning Senegal" and the importance of self-belief and positive change.

41:03 The need for African countries to take control of their own destiny.

42:07 Tijan discusses the future of innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa and the importance of creating spaces for entrepreneurs.

42:50 He emphasizes the need for African countries to leverage their cultural assets and create opportunities for young people and explore the continent’s “soft power”.

45:43 Darren wraps up the episode, and the season.

In this episode, we journey to Tunis to speak with Farah Mami, philanthropist, impact investor, and social entrepreneur committed to leading with heart, integrity, and deep cultural pride. Rooted in both Tunisia and France, Farah moves between worlds—geographically, spiritually, and professionally. She shares a powerful story of reclaiming authenticity, navigating the tensions of belonging, and redefining leadership on her own terms. As the chair of the Tunisia chapter of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) and a global advocate for women in business, she’s reshaping what leadership can look like when it’s grounded in care, equity, and spiritual alignment. Farah’s work aims to foster personal growth and community well-being. In this conversation she also reflects on the role of love as both anchor and fuel.

JUMP TO’s

00:43 Introducing Farah.

2:00 Farah’s invocation is a call for

05:30 Going between Paris and Tunis and the difficulty of living your true self in a culture of shaming.

15:10 The power of women to build communities.

19:20 The potential for women’s leadership to grow beyond where it is today

20:00 The importance of men’s support for women to change the narrative

23:00 Hear Farah’s ideas on becoming a successful entrepreneur and living a full life

24:30 What it will take for Tunisia to embrace opportunities and “go out to the world”

29:30 Tunisia holding space as a regional leader

30:00 The need for love and for safe spaces.

In this episode, we travel to Addis Ababa to speak with Feven Tsehaye, a purpose-driven entrepreneur, healer, and founder and CEO of Chakka Origins—a social enterprise reclaiming the wisdom of Ethiopia’s ancestral knowledge around biodiversity and indigenous plants while working with female smallholder farming communities. Feven’s story is rooted in both tradition and transformation as she draws on a childhood shaped by community, land, and the power of women. With a background in social impact, including work at the Gates foundation and graduate study on micro-finance approaches in southern Ethiopia, her work bridges the ancient and the modern, creating high-impact natural products while centering sustainability, equity, and care. In this conversation, Feven explores what it means to lead with care, build with purpose, and honor cultural knowledge. She reminds us that healing is both personal and political—and that joy, like justice, is something we must cultivate with intention.

Jump To’s

06:20 Feven discusses the knowledge of indigenous plants and medicines passed down through generations and how coming into contact with that knowledge changed her life.

07:00 The importance of storytelling

11:15 The beginning of Chakka Origins as a business with wider impact in mind.

14:10 On reclaiming industrial production and the narrative that goes with it.

16:00 The importance of Ethiopia’s biodiversity and connection to the land to the country’s national psyche. Did you know the country has five Biosphere Reserves!

18:15 Creating a largely women-driven supply chain.

21:30 The importance of aligning oneself with one’s personal values to survive the tidal waves of modern life.

24:00 Hear about Feven’s obsession with Ethiopian cardamom

31:00 What does climate justice mean in Ethiopia?

34:30 Feven circles back to community, especially Ethiopia’s women entrepreneurs, and how this engenders the ability to dream.

In this episode, we head to Dakar to speak with Madji Sock, an insightful entrepreneur, investor, and ecosystem builder whose work bridges tradition and innovation across Senegal and beyond. Madji brings a grounded, fearless presence shaped by a childhood split between continents, a deep reverence for Senegalese culture, and a belief in the transformative power of women. From co-founding the Women’s Investment Club—now a model replicated across Africa— to leading her own investment studio, Haskè Ventures, Madji has championed new ways for women to build, invest, and lead on their own terms. In this conversation, she reflects on how local traditions like tontines inspired scalable investment vehicles, the power of women’s leadership in Senegal, and what it will take to move African ventures from “one to ten.”

JUMP TO:

00:40… where Darren introduces season co-host Elisabeth Makumbi who hosts this episode

03:05… Madji’s invocation, where she calls in Wolof for divine intervention in these troubled times.

06:00… Madji discusses her upbringing and how a name can have such profound influence over a life, as well as the role of food and music - and discussions about women and girls’ causes at the dinner table.

09:00… The influence of the US and particularly New York, on her ambitions in life and on the draw of Senegal.

10:55… Her journey to co-founding the Women’s Investment Club

15:20… Shout out to Wendy Luhabe of South Africa’s WIPHOLD (Women Investment Portfolio Holdings).

18:30… The role of powerful women in Senegalese society.

22:00… Admiration for the authenticity in young people’s voices today.

23:50… African entrepreneurs’ difficulties growing continental champions; how it is one thing to be able to grow a company, to “get from 0 to 1”, quite another to “get from 1 to 10.”.

28:00… The people of Senegal “are still getting up and building” - be that in business or the arts/ entertainment spaces and how hope is driving the country past a “tipping point”.

In this episode, we travel to Benin City, Nigeria, to speak with Ore Disu, a visionary cultural strategist and founding director of the Institute of the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA). Ore is reshaping how we understand history, art, and African identity. From childhood days spent leafing through family photo albums in Lagos to building a groundbreaking institution at the heart of Nigeria’s cultural resurgence, Ore’s journey is rooted in care and creative reclamation. In this conversation, she reflects on how objects, stories, and even food become vessels of memory and belonging—and why repatriation must mean more than the return of artifacts but also be about revitalizing artist spaces so African creativity can flourish.

JUMP TO

02:00… Ore starts the conversation with an invocation in Yoruba: “The river, no matter how far it flows, always knows its source.”

04:40… Ore explains how museums create spaces where you can connect to people who “don't immediately have an obvious association or commonality with you”.

06:50… Learn about the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) as both a space of memory and of evidenced history, but also a space for current creativity and future imagining.

08:30… The connection between Timbuktu and the work of MOWWA and why reimagining “citadels of knowledge” and investing in memory is so important.

12:30… Ore discusses how in African culture and traditions, community was often more important than permanence and how that can help us define modern African cultural values.

16:50… Ore pushes back against being “villagized” and instead highlights the importance of movement across the continent to tell African stories.

20:54… Ore goes on to look at how art and material culture can erase artificial lines and colonial boundaries.

25:26… “Dream big!” Ore looks at what restitution could look like, beyond just the returning of objects, but revitalizing ecosystems for artists and artisanal spaces which she says has the potential to be a more powerful enterprise.

33.00… To ward off from this becoming a “restitution moment” of feel-good photo ops, what do we as Africans, as Black people, want out of it?

33.50… This week, something special as Dreaming in Color’s Cora Daniels rounds out the program with her outro debut.

In this episode, we journey to Johannesburg to speak with Nwabisa Mayema, a dynamic social entrepreneur and fierce advocate for women’s leadership across Africa. Nwabisa brings a bold and grounded presence to every space she enters. Her path—from accounting student to self-made entrepreneur, partnership strategist, and global convener—has been shaped by a deep belief in purpose, community, and the radical power of relationships. With roots in South Africa’s Eastern Cape and a lineage of what she calls “wild women,” Nwabisa shares how social capital, collective wisdom, and vulnerability can transform both businesses and societies. In this conversation, she explores what it means to lead with integrity, build community instead of networks, and embrace entrepreneurship not as hustle, but as healing and legacy-making.

In this week’s episode, we travel to Nairobi to speak with Tom Osborn, a visionary social entrepreneur and community-rooted leader whose work is reshaping how we think about mental health, sustainability, and youth empowerment in Africa. From growing up in a rural Kenyan village to launching his first clean energy venture at 18 and studying at Harvard, Tom’s path has been guided by a radical belief in community-first solutions and local agency. Now the founder and CEO of Shamiri Institute, Africa’s largest youth mental health provider, Tom shares how culturally grounded care, deep listening, and collective healing can transform not just individual lives but entire systems. Co-host Elisabeth Makumbi leads this beautiful conversation, which explores how to decolonize mental health care, reframe recovery on community terms, and rethink what it means to lead with humility, courage, and local knowledge.

In this week’s episode, we travel to Johannesburg to speak with Lekgetho Makola, a visual storyteller, cultural strategist, and arts executive whose work spans decades and continents. From his early days sculpting clay animals in rural Limpopo to curating critical archives at Robben Island and studying under film legends at Howard University, Lekgetho shares how his journey has been shaped by care, community, and a radical commitment to dignified representation. Now chief operating officer of the Market Theatre Foundation, he reflects on the transformative power of photography infused with love as a tool not only for documenting truth but for reclaiming identity and rehumanizing Black life. The conversation explores what it means to make—not take—images, the tension between capitalism and care, and the promise of building artistic ecosystems rooted in joy, collaboration, and cultural memory.

Jump To:

02:09 - “Disorganized lions won’t catch even a limping buffalo.” Lekgetho’s invocation highlighting the power of community and collective action.

05:15 - Lekgetho’s journey into the arts, with a little help from an attentive headmaster and exposure to animation on TV early in his childhood.

10:00 - The role of the arts, politics, political organization and even sport, in building a space for him to gently “let down” his father by choosing to pursue arts over studying economics.

14:50 - The Howard University experience, Lekgetho chooses to attend graduate school at the premier HBCU in the US and continues to be inspired by its pan-Africanist teaches

23:30 - References in Black imagery in the US, and West Africa and their influence on archiving the photos at Robben Island Museum, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.

25:35 - Visual literacy, the transformation of South Africa and the power of the image to de-humanize Africans as part of the “Colonial excursion”

33:30 - On utilizing the care found in traditional African storytelling to put dignity back into the modern legacy of Black and African storytelling.

46:20 - Youth and the impact of African music and urbanism on the future of visual storytelling.

54:00 - South Africa’s current challenges and the importance of care and integrity.

In this week’s episode, we travel to Tunisia to talk with Leila Ben-Gacem, a social entrepreneur and cultural preservationist, who shares her journey from biomedical engineering to community-based entrepreneurship in the heart of Tunis’ historic Medina. The conversation takes place at Dar Ben Gacem, her boutique hotel and social enterprise that not only revitalizes a historical space but also empowers the local community through inclusive hiring, artisan collaboration, youth education support, and economic opportunity. Leila emphasizes redefining profit to include social and environmental impact, advocating for a shared economy model where local prosperity is interlinked. This extraordinary conversation touches on the many layers that make up modern African identity in all its myriad forms helping to make Africa “home” to not just those on the continent but around the globe.

This is Dreaming in Color, Africa

Jump straight into:

00:02:00 Leila starts off the conversation with lyrics from Tunisian rapper Balti; don’t worry she translates for Darren.

00:04:00 Because of her father’s work travel, growing up Lelia spent only summers home in Tunisia, which made her value and appreciate Tunisian culture even more and understand the opportunities that the culture offers.

00:07:10 The magic of being a social entrepreneur and being able to run a business that benefits “the people that work there, the community, the environment”.

00:12:30 On taking “early retirement at 30” in order to pursue her obsession of social entrepreneurship.

00:15:00 On the origins of the Dar Ben Gacem hotel in the city’s Medina - built on layer upon layer of history going back 500 years, with each era ushering in new influences.

00:25:00 On artisans thinking “horizontally and vertically” to move forward and create new narratives

00:28:00 Hear how Tunis, which was originally known as Africa before giving the continent its name, can be considered home by so many.

00:31:00 According to Leila, the history of Tunis is easy to understand. “They come. We don’t like them… And they become family.” That history of layering makes Darren think of great gumbo when he grew up in New Orleans.

00:38:00 Hear Leila talk about being “the most positive person I know”

00:40:00 Rounding out the conversation on a pitch for social entrepreneurs and how many of Leila’s “250 dreams” are likely to come to fruition

In this episode Semhar Araia, CEO of the Diaspora Academy, discusses the transformative power of diasporic life—from visiting Eritrea as a teenager to working there professionally—highlighting the emotional and political significance of being both from a place and apart from it. She shares the story behind her name, revealing a powerful lineage tied to Eritrea’s struggle and resistance.

The conversation delves into the power of the diaspora and diasporic identity, particularly for Black and Brown communities, and the beauty of finding a sense of belonging across traditional borders. Semhar advocates for diasporic unity grounded in love, mutual recognition, and feminist values, arguing that the diaspora holds immense potential to reimagine global leadership and collective liberation. In recognition of the power of the diaspora we purposely start our journey through Africa with this conversation with Semhar in her home in DC.

This is Dreaming in Color, Africa.

Jump straight into:

00:00:45… Introduction of Semhar Araia

00:02:35… Semhar opens the conversation with an Invocation honoring her

00:03:55… Semhar’s early beginnings in an activist home in 1970’s New York

00:09:04… The importance of community – Semhar shares about her deep connection to Eritrean Diaspora community and how that sense of community has evolved

00:12:03… Going “home”, to Eritrea, at 13

00:14:20… Going back again, professionally, as a diasporan

00:16:12… Naming: the role of Semhar’s highly politicized name, and its connection to Eritrea’s struggle for independence, in her sense of “taking up space”

00:21:05… on deep impact of separation from homeland, and of connection…

00:25:47… The power of the diaspora movement, and how it is at once a feminist and a liberation movement