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Voices of Women in Geopolitics: Women’s Month Tribute Series 2026, Honouring Women Shaping Africa’s Future

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For generations, African women have participated deeply in the economy—trading, producing, farming and sustaining households and communities. Yet participation does not necessarily translate into ownership, scale or control of value chains.

For Zanele Tsambo, that is the shift African women must now make.

Speaking from her experience in international trade, banking and commodity markets, Zanele describes an industry that remains overwhelmingly male-dominated. Rather than accepting a peripheral role, she deliberately chose to enter the space at scale.

Her philosophy is strikingly simple:

“I decided that I’m not doing small. I will do truckloads.”

For Zanele, African women are already participants in the economy. The challenge is to move beyond small transactions and take greater ownership of the economic value being created.

That requires education, information, mentorship and deliberate strategic positioning. Women need to understand the industries they want to enter, the regulatory and compliance requirements, the markets, the risks and the mechanics of international transactions.

Her own experience illustrates what this can mean. Working across agricultural commodities and the mining sector, she has deliberately entered spaces where women remain significantly underrepresented—including holding a licence in a highly specialised part of the mining industry.

But Zanele’s message is not simply “think bigger.”

It is “prepare yourself to operate bigger.”

Women who want to enter international trade need to understand how transactions are structured, how buyers and sellers manage risk, how payment instruments provide security, how logistics work and how geopolitical and foreign-exchange developments affect commercial decisions.

She also sees opportunity in disruption.

Global geopolitical crises can disrupt established supply chains, but they can simultaneously create openings for African businesses through import substitution. When products previously sourced from outside Africa become difficult or expensive to obtain, African entrepreneurs should be asking: Can we produce or supply this ourselves?

That requires entrepreneurs to pay attention to geopolitical developments and recognise where emerging market opportunities lie.

For Zanele, however, women cannot make this transition alone.

They need mentorship, networks and collaboration. They need to bring more women into the rooms where major transactions take place and build the collective knowledge required to compete across borders.

Her message ultimately challenges African women to stop seeing themselves only as participants in the economy and start seeing themselves as owners and controllers of economic value.

Africa’s women already participate. The next step is scale, ownership and strategic control.

Who will be our next featured voice? Don’t miss, Keep reading!

About Women in Geopolitics

The Women in Geopolitics Debate Series is a high-level thought-leadership platform dedicated to amplifying African voices, particularly women’s voices, in conversations on geopolitics, global affairs, governance, leadership and development.

Through dialogue with women leaders, diplomats, policymakers, business leaders, academics and experts from across Africa and beyond, the programme is building a growing archive of African women’s perspectives on the issues shaping our continent and our world.

We invite you to visit the Women in Geopolitics Knowledge Hub on YouTube, explore previous conversations and subscribe as we unveil a new voice every day throughout August.

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About the author

Madelein Mkunu is the President of Leading Women of Africa (LWA), a Pan-African social enterprise promoting women's leadership in economic development, and the founder of Beyond Boundaries, a global content and advocacy platform amplifying African women’s voices in policy, peacebuilding, and development. A bilingual English–French strategist and accomplished public speaker, she brings over 20 years of experience in gender mainstreaming, inclusive governance, and stakeholder engagement across Africa and globally. She holds an MBA and a Master’s in Management from IEDC-Bled School of Management (Slovenia), a Postgraduate Degree in Development Studies from the University of the Western Cape (South Africa), a Certificate in Leadership from the Dale Carnegie Institute, and is an alumna of Michigan State University’s Women Empowerment Programme. With a background in accounting and a passion for transformative change, Madelein is a trusted advisor to institutions seeking Africa-rooted development solutions.

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Zanele Tsambo: Women Must Move From Participation to Ownership