Corporate America
This year, I committed to experimenting with a monthly newsletter — a space to think out loud as I unpacked the strange, beautiful intersections of my life: Malawi and Michigan, the UN and Microsoft, agriculture and gaming.
And let me tell you committing is HARD work. I wrote when I was uninspired. I wrote when I was tired. I wrote while I was traveling. I committed to writing, and even more importantly, to publsihing.
Eleven months later, I’ve learned something important about myself and about the work I’m called to do (and perhaps now writing books also has me seeing it a bit differently):
A month is too fast for the kind of depth I desire in writing. The stories I’m telling need time.
So this is my final monthly newsletter.
Going forward, I’ll be shifting to quarterly editions, and perhaps a fully independent publication (details at the end of this Newsletter), released at the beginning of each quarter — slower, deeper, and more intentional. It feels fitting that this month’s theme is Corporate America, because much of what I’ve learned here is what I’m now taking back home.
If you are not yet a subscriber, please feel free to subscribe below to get the updates directly in your mailbox. If you are already a subscriber, thanks for tagging along in the journey thus far.
Happy New Month! Wishing you a grounded and gentle start to December. If this year has moved as fast for you as it has for me, I hope this month gives you a moment to breathe, reset, and choose what you want to carry into 2026 — and what you’re ready to put down.
All my love,
Let’s Play! : Kwathu Kollective Joins Xbox Game Camp Africa
My journey with Xbox seems far from over — I’m incredibly excited to share that the Kwathu Kollective has been selected for Xbox Game Camp Africa!
A journalist in conversation asked me what this actually means, and I found myself evangelizing the gaming industry. There’s so much here, but in simple words, to me it means three things:
- that African hubs like Kwathu Kollective are being seen as serious partners in the global games ecosystem;
- that our vision for gamified education, precision farming, and autonomous mobility is not a wild tangent, but a timely response;
- and that our first playable demo and our first physical farm in Mangochi are no longer ideas — they are timelines.
Personal Development: On Obedience to Alignment
When I got into the gaming industry, it was clear to me that making games was an inevitable future for me. For months, however, the farming and the gaming felt like two separate businesses. Two lives. Two futures. It wasn’t until one quiet afternoon at my desk in Redmond that the question finally landed:
What if the innovation farm is a game first?
Read my Reflections:
That single thought collapsed the confusion I had carried for nearly 8 months at the time. The farm, the game, the hub — they were never separate. They were three parts asking to be built, as one system.
Personal development for me, this year, has not been about adding more skills. It has been about listening closely enough to act when something feels deeply, spiritually aligned — even when it doesn’t look “logical” from the outside.
Professional Growth: Wrapping Up the MBA
This month, I officially completed the third semester of my MBA. I now have exactly two more months of study before I return to Malawi to begin building our first physical farm in Mangochi.
The MBA has been many things for me: a bridge between public sector and private sector logic; a crash course in financial discipline; and, unexpectedly, an archive of lessons I don’t want to keep to myself.
Check out the Resources I have Shared During the MBA:
Over the past year and a half, I’ve been documenting my progress, cases, notes, and frameworks on my blog — from corporate finance to negotiations, marketing analytics, and systems thinking.
If you’re a young African professional, student, or dreamer who wants to explore this journey, I’ve opened up that archive.
Entrepreneurship & Innovation: Q2 Systems Officially in Motion
On the entrepreneurship front, Q2 Systems has taken a big formal step:
- we are now officially incorporated as an LLC in Michigan,
- and in January of this year, we incorporated in South Africa.
I wish there was, but there isn’t: there is no grand, complicated reason behind Michigan. I did it because it simply felt right. Michigan is where this chapter began; it makes sense that it also holds the legal roots of what we’re building.
Read More on Why I founded Q2:
Q2 Systems is the home of:
- Kwathu Smart Innovation Farms (KSIF) — our digital triplet model for farms;
- our first farming simulation game, currently in development;
- and our broader vision for systems simulations across supply chains and mobility.
As we head into 2026, our focus is clear: ship the first playable demo, break ground on our first physical farm in Mangochi, and prove that African-built systems can set the standard for how the world learns to design value chains.
Lifestyle: Declutter(ing)
This year, just like the years before, for me, moved at a speed my wardrobe and my house did not sign up for.
One minute, I was rushing to Washington. Then suddenly, I was back in Michigan. New city, new routines, new versions of myself — but my physical space never had time to catch up. My apartment currently looks like a suitcase exploded, then started a family.
December, for me, is going to be the month of decluttering.
Read More:
Not just clothes and books and cables — but commitments, expectations, and unfinished stories that I no longer need to carry. I want to sort through my home the same way I’m sorting through my year: gently, intentionally, deciding what comes with me into the next chapter.
I shared a bit about this process — how I declutter my mess, my mind, and my calendar — and I am inviting you into it.
Featured: High-level Pledging Event on the Central Emergency Response Fund 2026
This month, I am joining the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (United Nations OCHA ROSEA) in amplifying the message of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) ahead of the High-Level Pledging Event.
This campaign comes at a crucial moment for our region. In Southern and Eastern Africa, millions of families are navigating the compounding effects of climate-induced drought, rising food insecurity, and shocks that strain entire systems at once. Malawi is one of the countries hardest hit.
As part of the campaign, I will be soon sharing a video message in support of this year’s CERF advocacy efforts:
Read More: CERF (UNOCHA ROSEA unocha.org)
New Chapter: Voice of Development
As we close out the era of monthly newsletters, I’m stepping into something more intentional — and perhaps A LOT more ambitious.
Beginning January 2026, the Ntha Foundation will begin publishing The Voice of Development, a quarterly global synthesis exploring where international cooperation stands today, what shifted in the past quarter, and what signals we should be paying attention to as we step into the next.
This publication is my way of creating the space that long-form thinking deserves. I think it is time we moved to depth — analysis, essays, expert contributions, institutional letters, and conversations with the people shaping the future of development across the world. I am also grateful that like awards me the chance and freedom to do this.
Don’t forget to subscribe to get the updates directly in your mailbox!
Think of it as: a quarterly briefing for world citizens who care about systems, the Global South, and the next decade of global transformation.
The first issue — Q1 2026: Global Futures — arrives in January.
Spotlight: Bernadette Mweso Leads Miss Malawi
For this month’s spotlight, I want to celebrate my best friend, Bernadette Mweso.
This year, Bernadette stepped into the role of CEO of the national Miss Malawi pageant, and I have been privileged to have witness the extraordinary job she has done bringing the show back to life — managing people, managing systems, building partnerships, and holding space for young Malawian women to step into their power.
On 13th December, she will be leading the Miss Malawi pageant final show as CEO, and I could not be prouder. She has been my anchor, my reality check, my soft place to land — and watching her lead so boldly is one of the joys of my year.
Read my Published Works:
If you’d like to go deeper into my journey — from Malawi, through the United Nations to Microsoft, you can find it in my books:
Get a Snippet of my Upcoming Books:
CONNECT WITH NTHANDA ONLINE:
About the Author
