Rewriting the narrative: the power of women in Africa

Today, on International Women’s Day, I find myself reflecting on the extraordinary power of the women that I am privileged to know—our resilience, our leadership and the barriers we continue to break. Yet in Africa, for centuries, most women have had little opportunity to experience, let alone master, the wild spaces of this continent. The patriarchal structures that have shaped this industry—and so many others—have kept them in the background, rather than leading from the front. It’s an inequity that is impossible to ignore and one that has always fueled my desire to challenge the status quo.

I have always known that travel could be a force for change – but five years ago, standing on the apron at Cape Town Airport and searching for the pilot of my flight, I realised just what it could mean. The captain was a woman. The co-pilot was a woman. A spark ignited. What if an entire safari was led by women? Women guides, women trackers, women chefs, women sommeliers—women leading from the front. That thought became a reality with the birth of our Women’s Empowerment Retreats, the first of their kind in the industry and a concept never seen before.

The impact of these retreats has exceeded anything I could ever have imagined. Since our inaugural retreat in South Africa in 2019, we have convened in Kenya, Rwanda and my homeland of Zimbabwe, each time fostering change, connection and purpose. In a few short weeks on April 8th, I will be traveling to Xigera Lodge in Botswana’s Okavango Delta on our fifth retreat, continuing to sow these seeds of change alongside a brigade of utterly remarkable women. To say I am excited is an understatement!

Women are the heartbeat of Africa. We are mothers, sisters, teachers, leaders. Tourism is in our DNA. And yet, for too long, the industry has sidelined women, limiting them to roles behind the scenes while men took the stage as guides and decision-makers.

Our Women’s Empowerment Retreats rewrite that narrative. We bring women from around the world to witness and support the brilliance of African women who are reshaping the safari industry. Over the years, our speakers have included conservationists, founders, parliamentary visionaries and pilots—and I’ve seen firsthand the impact of women visibly leading in these roles. On our retreat in Zimbabwe in 2023, we placed a female guide in a lodge where no woman had ever held that position. Within days, the entire team, both men and women, were asking, “How do we train to be guides?” Two women from that very lodge are now on their way to becoming guides, simply because they saw someone who looked like them leading from the front. This is how we change culture—not by demanding it, but by showing what’s possible.

We never ask our guests for philanthropic donations, because when you witness real impact, you naturally become part of the change. Over the years, our retreats have sparked connections that have led to films, books, TED Talks, grants, scholarships and powerful collaborations. Take the South African College of Tourism for example. A simple introduction at one of our retreats led to an international exchange program, sending young women from rural South Africa to Boston, where they now gain global experience through the YMCA summer program.

These tangible impacts have far exceeded my greatest expectations, yet these are only the outcomes I can quantify. The emotional impact is something else entirely, and words fail to capture the profound transformations, the deep shifts, we all experience whilst together on a retreat. The energy, the shared purpose, the collective determination—it’s nothing short of transformational. The magnitude of these retreats is staggering and to say that we are playing a role in changing the world, even a little, is both humbling and extraordinary.