Africa Over Coffee; Give to Gain: A Conversation on Leadership, Enterprise, and the Power of Women Supporting Women
By Myra Oloo, Africa Over Coffee Co-Chair (2025-2026)
On Saturday, 7th March 2026, the African Society of Cambridge Univeristy hosted Africa Over Coffee at Cripps Court, Magdalene College, Cambridge, as part of this year’s International Women’s Day programme under the theme “Give to Gain.” The event brought together members and well-wishers of the Cambridge Africa community for an afternoon of thoughtful conversation, shared experience, and reflection on women’s leadership, mentorship, entrepreneurship, and collective growth. The panel format was designed around the idea that when women share knowledge, open doors, and create opportunities for one another, they expand what is possible for everyone.
The event began on a strong and welcoming note, with the introduction of the event and presenting the speakers to the audience. This opening helped frame the purpose of the session and set the tone for an engaging discussion. Guests were then served coffee, adding a distinctive and meaningful element to the gathering. The event was sponsored by Kahawa 1893, a coffee business founded by Kenyan entrepreneur Margaret Nyamumbo, and attendees had the opportunity to enjoy African coffee during the programme. This ensured that participants did not only discuss African enterprise and women’s impact in theory but also experienced one of Africa’s most globally valued products championed by a woman entrepreneur in a direct and memorable way.
The panel featured two distinguished speakers whose work reflects both leadership and purpose-driven impact in different but complementary ways. Dr. Vongai Nyahunzvi, Founder and Managing Partner of Equinexus Partners, brought a wealth of experience in executive leadership, organizational transformation, and strategic coaching. Lauren Le Franc, Founder of The Little Coffee Company, brought insights from her work as a UK-qualified barrister and entrepreneur building ethical, women-led coffee supply chains between producing regions and international markets. Together, the speakers offered the audience a rich discussion that bridged leadership, business, identity, community, and impact.
In line with the panel structure, the conversation began by inviting both speakers to reflect on their personal journeys and on the women who had helped shape their paths. This gave the discussion a personal and honest foundation. Both speakers reflected on the help they had received from fellow women along the way and showed that success is rarely built in isolation. Instead, it often grows through encouragement, mentorship, sponsorship, belief, and access created by others.
Dr. Vongai Nyahunzvi then opened the session more deeply by reflecting on her experiences and how they shaped her journey and success. Through her remarks, she challenged simplified ways of understanding people and leadership, suggesting that conventional frameworks often fail to fully see people in their complexity and context. Her reflections pointed to the need for more context-sensitive and grounded approaches to organizational transformation, especially approaches that recognize the value of African knowledge systems and lived realities. This connected strongly to the leadership-focused segment of the panel, which was designed to explore women’s leadership in senior spaces, the qualities that help women thrive despite underrepresentation, and the distinct strengths African women bring into leadership and influence.
Her insights appear to have resonated deeply with the audience, not only because they were intellectually sharp, but also because they were rooted in lived and professional experience.
Lauren Le Franc introduced herself and her work through the story of The Little Coffee Company, a purpose-driven enterprise connected to coffee grown in her home country, Jamaica. She explained that her business supports women-led farming communities and works to strengthen ethical and transparent coffee supply chains. In her introduction, she also spoke about 100% Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, one of the world’s most recognized and sought-after coffees, using that example to illustrate both the cultural significance and the economic potential of origin-based coffee production. Her reflections highlighted the intersection of law, enterprise, heritage, and social impact, and showed how business can be built in a way that prioritizes both commercial value and empowerment.
Lauren also strongly emphasized the role of women supporting one another as a route to collective success. Her remarks aligned closely with the entrepreneurship and impact section of the panel, which explored what it means to build a venture as a woman, the barriers women founders often face, and the importance of networks, community, and women opening doors for one another. Through her contribution, the audience was able to see entrepreneurship not just as a matter of starting a company, but as a means of creating opportunities for other women, strengthening communities, and rethinking how value is shared along global supply chains.
Another important and relatable part of the discussion was the speakers’ honesty about the challenges they had faced in working with male bosses and in navigating male-dominated professional environments. Rather than presenting success as straightforward, both speakers reflected on the realities of these experiences and on how they had learned to maneuver through them. This honesty made the event especially valuable to the audience. It gave the conversation credibility and helped ground the theme of women’s empowerment in the real structures and difficulties women still face in workplaces and leadership spaces.
The event also made room for broader discussion on mentorship, sponsorship, and community, including how people beyond one’s immediate group can play a role in opening doors and amplifying women’s progress. This was an important addition because it widened the conversation from individual success to the ecosystems that make success more possible. The panel guide itself deliberately distinguished between mentorship and sponsorship and encouraged discussion of active advocacy and opportunity creation, which helped deepen the conversation beyond general encouragement.
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