N. M.

Come work with my team at the Kwathu Kollective and I as we build Malawi's first commercially playable game: kwathufarms.com.

No prior game development expertise is required, though computer programming knowledge is an advantage, as we build our games [for now] in Unreal Engine.

Women are encouraged to apply.

Share with a friend to share with a friend: kwathu.org/nf-gamedev-2026

Game Development: Nyenyezi Fellowship | KWATHU UPGRADE - Tapping into African Innovation and Creativity The Kwathu Kollective is launching a new opportunity for young creatives, technologists, storytellers, artists, and aspiring developers across Malawi to help build the country’s first commercial video game.

What a beautiful feature. Zikomo kwambiri. 🙏🏽♥️

Meet Nthanda from Mangochi Who Owns Two Master's Degrees But Now Building a Technology Company in USA

Long before Detroit, global innovation systems, and boardroom conversations about emerging technologies, Nthanda Manduwi was simply a girl from Mangochi with a curious mind and big questions about how the world works.

At Marymount Secondary School, where she graduated with 12 points, she was already deeply interested in ideas bigger than herself, systems, development, people, and the future. She would later carry those interests to the University of Malawi, where she pursued a Bachelor of Social Science, majoring in Economics and Demography.

But Nthanda's journey was never going to remain ordinary.

While many people build careers in straight lines, hers evolved in layers.

She moved from studying society, to studying systems. From community development, to technology. From local impact, to global infrastructure thinking.

After her undergraduate studies, she pursued a Master of Science in Entrepreneurship with a focus on Digital Transformation at Malawi University Of Science and Technology in Thyolo. Later, she earned a second Master's degree, an MBA from Michigan State University in the United States, specializing in Marketing Management and Business Analytics.

The MBA came during a defining chapter of her life.

Living in New York at the time, Nthanda had become increasingly fascinated by innovation ecosystems, technology commercialization, and how large-scale systems are designed and sustained. She was no longer just thinking about businesses, she was thinking about infrastructure, coordination, production, autonomy, and the future itself.

Her move to the United States was shaped by both education and opportunity. She joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through its NextGen Graduate Programme, working with the Independent Evaluation Office in New York. The experience exposed her to global development systems and policy-making at the highest level.

But even then, her vision kept expanding.

Earlier in her career, she founded Kwathu Kollectiv, formerly Ntha Foundation, an initiative focused on youth development, innovation, and digital skills for young Africans. Yet over time, she began asking larger questions:

What would it look like for Africa not just to consume technology, but to build it?

That question eventually led to the birth of Q2 Systems, the cyber-physical infrastructure company she is now building in Detroit, Michigan.

Today, her work focuses on digital twins, simulation systems, autonomous technologies, and intelligent infrastructure, technologies shaping the next generation of industries worldwide.

And through it all, Nthanda remains deeply rooted in purpose.

She believes African women deserve space not only to participate in the future, but to design it.

From Mangochi to Michigan in the USA, from development studies to advanced technology systems, Nthanda Manduwi is quietly building proof that African dreams can evolve far beyond the first version of themselves.

By Hastings Msosa