Africa | Corcoran Productions

October 4, 2018December 6, 2021

Former Eritrean Taxi Driver Turns Her Successful Restaurant Over To Her Sons

Almaz Ghebrezgabher, Co-Owner, Massawa Restaurant, is feeling a great sense of relief. After 30 years of cooking and managing the East African, Massawa Restaurant, with her husband, Amanuel Tekeste, she is expanding the restaurant, and turning the business over to her four children.

She has trouble articulating her happiness and feelings of accomplishment but when we watch her on the video, we share in her joy.

December 8, 2017April 15, 2022

Leadership In Africa: Are You Leading A Purpose-Driven Life?

People can spend their entire lives in search for purpose. We understandably seek it in family, education, work that engages us. But sometimes that is not enough and some of us fall into a rut of the continuous grasping for power and prestige items like fast cars and McMansions that we think will satiate us and give our life purpose.

But the externals often fail to offer the balm we seek.

October 26, 2017April 15, 2022

Leadership In Practice: Rebuilding A Nation After Trauma

Being a leader takes courage, patience, resilience and vision. Deogratias (Deo) Niyizonkiza, Founder and CEO, Village Health Works, has those leadership attributes and many more.

Deo was born into a loving yet poor family in Burundi. At the outbreak of the 1994 Hutu/Tutsi genocide in Rwanda/Burundi, Deo was attending medical school in Bujumbura, Burundi. One day a group of Hutus came to his dorm looking to kill any and all Tutsis. Deo hid under his bed. After the perpetrators left, he fled to the woods of Burundi and Rwanda where he hid, while witnessing senseless slaughter, for six months. Continue reading “Leadership In Practice: Rebuilding A Nation After Trauma”

October 26, 2017April 15, 2022

Is Investing In Africa For You?

Africa is a region that has long been on the radar of the international investment community. With the rise of mobile finance, agriculture and according to the UN, a labor force of 225 million young people ages 15-25, which is expected to 450 million by 2055, the continent is ripe for opportunities. Continue reading “Is Investing In Africa For You?”

May 23, 2010August 23, 2016

Writer Ishmael Beah Talks To NYC Kids On Being a Child Soldier

Ishmael Beah talks to New York City high school kids about his memoir, A Long Way Gone, about his experience as a child soldier in Sierra Leone.

May 21, 2010August 23, 2016

Africa Entrepreneurship Master Class

Four Columbia Business School students consulted with hotel owner and Dar es Salaam entrepreneurs, Joseph and Damasi Mfugale, on how to build their Peacock Hotel chain, from three-stars into a five-star hotel.

May 21, 2010August 23, 2016

Africa Entrepreneurship Master Class: Charlly

Charlly Greene, Columbia Business School student, class of ’08, talks about her participation in the African Entrepreneurship Master Class.

May 21, 2010August 23, 2016

Africa Entrepreneurship Master Class: First meeting

The Columbia Business School team meets Joseph and Damasi Mfugale, owner and ceo of the Peacock Hotel. The Mfugales take the CBS team on a tour of their $2 million hotel expansion that will include a spa, conference center and luxury suites.

May 21, 2010August 23, 2016

Africa Entrepreneurship Master Class: A Profile on the Peacock Hotel

Joseph Mfugale, 64, is the founder,. He recevied his MBA from the University of Lusanne, Switzerland.
Continue reading “Africa Entrepreneurship Master Class: A Profile on the Peacock Hotel”

May 21, 2010August 23, 2016

Africa Entrepreneurship Master Class: The Drive

Damasi takes the Columbia Business School students to survey the proposed site for their beachfront luxury hotel on the Kigamboni Peninsula. The site is a five-minute ferry ride from Dar with an additional 10-minute drive from the Kigamboni ferry. This day, the ride took almost two hours.