New Podcast Episode: On Hiking in the Sango, Prophetic Dreams, and the Scandal of the Left Hand - An Extraordinary Conversation with Rumbi Makanga
I love Trevor Noah. Like, I really freaking love his podcast.
He’s JUST like me. Case in point:
1️⃣ We’re both born in 1984.
2️⃣ We both have a connection to Switzerland.
3️⃣ We’re both southern African.
4️⃣ We both love random conversations that zig-zag from hilarious to profound without warning.
My toxic trait? I genuinely believe Trevor Noah is going to stumble across my LinkedIn, read this, hit like, and then my podcast will go viral. Trevor — you scratch my back, I scratch yours.
A girl can only hope. I mean, is he even here with us, scouting the gutters with working men?
Why Trevor Noah Matters Here
Why am I talking about Trevor Noah? His podcast What Now? — that’s exactly what I want Extraordinary Conversations with askChenai to be when she grows up.
One week Trevor’s talking to Bill Gates. The next week he’s with a rapper. Then suddenly he’s riffing with one of his childhood friends about what they’d do if they took over the world.
You NEVER know who you’re getting.
And that’s us too. Because Vimbai Mkaronda and I have broad interests — and because so many Zimbabweans are dope — you never know who you’re getting when you tune in.
Enter Rumbi Makanga
This week our guest walked in with the line: “I’m really funny.”
I said: “No pressure then.”
But she wasn’t lying.
And she’s not just funny — she’s a force.
Rumbi Makanga is an investor, a founder, an ecosystem lead, and a global strategy exec who’s worked across deep tech, financial services, and space tech around the world. She’s built ventures, backed entrepreneurs, led transformations.
But underneath all of that, she’s also a Zimbabwean woman moving through multiple worlds. And that’s the story we wanted to tell.
Part 1: The Roots
This is Part 1 of a double episode — and in true Zimbabwean style, we started with the roots before we got to the rise.
Here’s what we covered:
🌍 Hiking in the sango — and how being outdoors shapes the way she sees herself.
✨ Prophetic dreams, visions, and faith — why they still guide her decisions today.
📚 Books and libraries — how they taught her to imagine beyond borders.
😂 Zimbabwean banter — why it’s not just comic relief, but cultural resilience, survival, and sharp-witted love.
🙃 The scandal of the left hand — that moment you realise passing something with your left hand is culturally shady business. (If you know, you know.)
It’s tender, it’s funny, it’s unapologetically Zimbabwean.
Part 2: The Rise (Coming Next Week)
This is only the beginning. Next week, in Part 2, we go into the rise:
🚀 The lowdown on space tech — what’s real vs. what’s hype
💸 Why VC investors sometimes seem to love sketchy founders
📊 Why founders need to be very circumspect about ownership and what kind of company they’re really building
🧟 And Rumbi’s very strategic zombie apocalypse plan
Listen Now
🎧 Episode 5 is out now: On hiking in the sango, prophetic dreams, whether Zimbabweans really have the best banter – and the scandal of the left hand.
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