#Iconic_Audencians: Beauty Manake (MSc FAM 15), Botswana’s first female minister of agriculture

It took 6 months to pin her down for a promised interview, but given our subject’s status, we knew that we had to be patient and understanding. To say that Beauty Manake has a jam-packed schedule is an understatement. Not even a year and a half into her first and prominent political role, she is in charge of nothing less than Botswana’s food security and agricultural strategy, and the pandemic has forced her country into a state of public emergency. This mother of two and CEO of Kungo Farms has gone into politics with a view of fulfilling her long-held dream: transforming agricultural practices in order to ensure the self-sufficiency and sustainability of the country she loves intensely.

We are glad to have persevered because, as a result, we get a special glimpse into the fascinating life of a high-profile yet unorthodox politician. Beauty shares her memories of an upbringing, which did not preordain her to the eminent career she leads. She tells us why, swimming against the tide, she decided to move into farming and she recalls in vivid detail the day she found out about her ministerial role. In fact, once we get Beauty on the phone, she talks enthusiastically and endlessly. “Forgive me, I’m a politician, I talk too much!” she apologises, tongue in cheek. Revealing her candid nature, she confesses, “Thank you for hunting me down so relentlessly for this interview. I didn’t realise I had so much to share about my own life story. I am so glad for the opportunity you have given me to appreciate where I come from and what I have accomplished”.

 

It all began back in 2020 when we celebrated Audencia’s 120th anniversary by launching our very first iconic alumni collection. For this second series, we are delighted and proud to showcase 12 new profiles of Audencians from around the globe. The alumni that you will discover have very generously given up their time for an interview with fellow alumna, Katia Hérault (GE 2001), for which we are immensely grateful.