Iconoclastic Women Take Centre Stage on CNN African Voices

African women who have successfully challenged the stereotype of women staying in the background are the talking point of this weekend’s CNN African Voices sponsored by Globacom.

The magazine programme which airs on CNN International will feature strong women across Africa including South Africa’s first African female pilot, Asnath Mahapa, one of Uganda’s biggest media personalities, Flavia Tumusiime and Ghana’s social media curator, Nicole Amarteifio.

According to a statement released by Globacom, “Viewers of the popular magazine programme will see how this icon – Tumusime – continues to build her legacy by empowering women to move into the spotlight”.

For the pilot, Mahapa, who currently flies Airbus 319 and 320 for South African Airways (SAA), she will take viewers through her amazing journey in a profession dominated by men.

But as viewers will find out, it has not been all rosy: “To cut my story short, I went through a nightmare to get to where I am today; I went through periods where I didn’t have a job. In actual fact after I obtained my Commercial license, I stayed without a job for over a year. No matter how many companies I approached, I just could not get anything,” she says.

The third guest Nicole Amarteifio is the creator and executive producer of the webseries, An African City.  She shares with the audience how her personal life motivated her to create the series and how it is helping change the face of the African woman within mainstream society.

It will be recalled that last week, the magazine programme featured Olympic Sports with focus on Julius Yego, Kenya’s Javelin thrower; Paralympics swimmer Achmat Hassiem of Cape Town, South Africa, and Zambia’s runner, Ngozi Asinga.

Repeat broadcasts of African Voiceswill be aired at 3.30 p.m. on Saturday, 1.30 a.m. and 8.30 p.m. on Sunday, 12.30 p.m. on Monday and 6.30 a.m. on Tuesday.