Ayeta Anne Wangusa is the executive director of Culture and Development East Africa (CDEA), a creative think tank based in Dar es Salaam. She is currently a member of the Unesco Expert Facility for the 2005 Convention (2016-2017).

CDEA’s programming revolves around research, policy analysis, advocacy, creative incubation and acceleration in the fashion and accessories design, film and music. CDEA also hosts a Pan-African Writers Lounge where it organises public readings and conversations.

Wangusa was born in Kampala, Uganda but moved to Tanzania after getting married 13 years ago.

She holds a master’s degree in new media, governance and democracy from the University of Leicester, UK and a Master’s in Literature from Makerere University, Uganda.

She works in the areas of cultural policy, creative economy and imagining the future — creativity, cities, commerce and the environment.

She is currently organising the first inaugural regional Mashariki Creative Economy Impact Investment Conference scheduled for May 11-12, an activity of the Danida-funded project Research in Culture and Creative Industries, focusing on the film and music sectors’ contribution to the creative economy in Tanzania and the EAC Common Market.

The conference aims to initiate conversations on impact investment and innovative finance for the creative economy in East Africa. It will also be an opportunity for potential impact investors in creative economy to listen to pitches from selected start ups, SMES and support institutions for creative industries. The outcome of these conversations will be a report that will contribute to the design thinking process of establishing an impact capital vehicle for supporting the creative economy in East Africa.

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Ayeta Anne Wangusa, the executive director of Culture and Development East Africa. PHOTO| FILE

What’s your off-duty passion?
Surprisingly, my job is what I do for both money and for charity. I have committed my life to supporting the creative community in East Africa. So I spend time researching innovative creative ideas and how I can adapt them to benefit the creative community… starting with my current location, Dar es Salaam.

If you hadn’t turned into who you are now, what would you be?
A university lecturer of Literature.

What signifies your personal style?
This is reflected in my home. Someone once described it as modern rustic style, laced with a piece of Africa.

How do you manage your wardrobe
I have just one rule: Thursday is dedicated to African wear. It is my moment to be ‘Kitengelicious.’ But I think I need to work with a stylist. Can a creative out there grab this opportunity?

When in East Africa, where are you most likely to be whiling away your time on a Saturday afternoon?
I love the ocean, so that will be Slipway, Masaki in Dar es Salaam.

Describe your best destination yet in East Africa?
Kampala. That is where I was born.

Anywhere on your must-visit list?
I would love to visit Kigali. Seeing is believing. I have heard a lot about the order and cleanliness of the city. May be there is even godliness there.

What do you see as East Africa’s greatest strength?
Its people. There would be no East Africa without the people.

What’s your best collection?
Books, mostly African literature. I should rent them out, that would make a good business outside my work, I guess?

What’s the most thoughtful gift you have received?
A letter from a five-year old girl called Chantal. It reads, ‘I love you Ante Ayeter very match. Ante Ayeter I have mesed you, theck you… When will you came..I love you, theck you.’ It is framed and hung on the wall in my office.

What’s the best gift you have given?
Once upon time, I was a poet. So I wrote a poem for a friend on cardboard paper and stuck on a few guinea fowl feathers to decorate it. Something that could be framed. Strangely, her cousin saw it and said, ‘This person will find it hard to fit in the world.’

Your last great read?
White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga. I came to grip with the reality of how someone can commit a crime and disappear into the fabric of a city with 8.5 million people, untraceable by the police.

Which movie had an impact on you?
Roots, based on Alex Hailey’s epic novel. I got visual clarity about what slavery did to Africans who are now African Americans.

What’s your favourite music?
It used to be country music, now all I listen to is Bongo Flava in my car.

What’s the constant in your fridge?
Apples and grapes.