Building Quantum Community Across Africa
Overview
Farai Mazhandu, physicist, high school teacher, and dynamic social entrepreneur, first worked with quantum tech in 2019. To continue the energy and enthusiasm he experienced from a Qiskit coding class, he first led the Africa chapter of One Quantum and more recently founded the African Quantum Consortium (AQC). In this episode of The Quantum Spin, Farai and host Veronica Combs discuss the challenges and excitement of creating a continent’s quantum strategy for today and for the future, using Africa’s inherent strengths, and building a broad community.
00:00 Introduction to the Quantum Spin Podcast
00:34 Meet Farai Mazhandu: STEM Advocate and Educator
00:48 The Birth of the Africa Quantum Consortium
02:18 Building a Quantum Community in Africa
05:34 The Importance of Community and Happy Hours
08:43 Quantum Use Cases and Africa’s Technological Future
15:34 Investing in Africa’s Quantum Ecosystem
19:09 Addressing Western Misconceptions About Africa
23:28 The Role of Storytelling in Science Communication
28:31 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Farai Mazhandu is a quantum strategist shaping Africa’s tech trajectory. He founded the Africa Quantum Consortium (AQC) and drives STEM talent pipelines across Africa and the U.S.
Holding dual master’s degrees from the Colorado School of Mines and University of Witwatersrand, Farai brings 15+ years in physics education, quantum research, and ecosystem leadership. He has led cross-continental initiatives advancing quantum innovation, policy, and public engagement.
Originally from Zimbabwe, Farai is a published author, journal editor, and ecosystem architect committed to securing Africa’s quantum future.
Transcript
[00:00:00] Veronica: Hello, and welcome to The Quantum Spin by HKA. I’m Veronica Combs. I’m a writer and an editor here at the agency. I get to talk every day with really smart people working on really fascinating subjects, everything in the Quantum industry, from hardware to software. On our podcast, we focus in on quantum communication, and by that I don’t mean making networks safe from hacking or entangling photons over long distance, but talking about the technology.
[00:00:26] How do you explain these complicated concepts to people who don’t have a background in science and engineering but want to understand all the same?
[00:00:34] Today I am joined by Farai Mazhandu who is a STEM advocate, an educator, and a social entrepreneur. Thank you so much for joining us today.
[00:00:45] Farai: Thank you. It’s a pleasure being here. Thank you for having me.
[00:00:48] Veronica: So I wanted to talk to you first about the Africa Quantum Consortium, which is an organization that you founded, and it sounds wonderful and enormous and challenging all at the same time.
[00:00:59] Tell me how the organization got started.
[00:01:01] Farai: Yeah, you are very right. The Africa Quantum Consortium is an ambitious project. One of the most ambitious projects that I think I’ll ever be involved in. So I am from Zimbabwe, so my name is Farai. My first degree is in applied physics and I finished that degree and go into education.
[00:01:20] I didn’t enjoy the way that I learned physics. And at some point when our economy had a reset in Zimbabwe, I did ask myself some hard questions. Okay, what can I do with myself? And I wanted to contribute to our country to support our youths.
[00:01:35] So I went into education for five years, set myself a couple of goals. I wanted outcomes to change. I wanted all my students to pass. I wanted students who never thought they would enjoy physics to enjoy it. I did that in the five years and then I left to go to South Africa for postgrad.
[00:01:53] I came across an advisor who was beginning to explore quantum computing, quantum information processing using carbon-based, you know, materials. It’s a very good material science university, historically a School of Mines in South Africa.
[00:02:06] So that’s when I come across quantum information processing. It was, you know, interesting to me that there was another compute revolution that I could see early on, like jump on early on.
[00:02:18] So I did jump on that one and I attended the Qiskit camp in Africa. That was in 2019 which I think it was the first summer school in Africa in quantum Wow. Quantum computing. So it is during that event where I meet other people from across Africa where I meet people from, you know, across the world really.
[00:02:37] And it was a beautiful moment when we all came together. We had fun. We became a community, and there was just a vibe to it that I really loved.
[00:02:46] That background in education helped me to see that connection, to get this excitement and find a way to channel it into the continent.
[00:02:54] And one other thing as well was I also wanted to see more people like me in the field, and I wasn’t seeing so many of them. And I was like, I can’t be an armchair critic and just complain about the lack of representation in the field because I can do it. So I began to talk to friends who were even part of that event to say, we need to keep this going.
[00:03:15] So coincidentally, Covid happened soon after that event. And we were all stuck at home. So stuck in Zimbabwe with all, you know, after this beautiful moment of quantum, I began thinking about how we need the conversation to keep going.
[00:03:31] What can we do? So we started an online community and that’s how we began part of One Quantum, which was an organization that was at that time, you know, formed to connect people across the world in quantum. It was community focused and I became a founding president for the African chapter.
[00:03:48] And through that, gathered people together, our leaders, enthusiasts and everybody. And we drove what I believe was one of the most powerful virtual networks in Africa at that time, which brought in, you know, all the big players. We had the leadership summit that was attended by Bob Sutor.
[00:04:09] He was the opening keynote speaker. Honeywell (Oh, wow.) was the lead sponsor for the event. And that was a big moment of all the top researchers from Africa, Francesco Petruccione and Professor Ahmed Younes, Professor Mourad Telmani,
[00:04:25] that was a big moment. So that was the foundation on which the Africa Quantum Consortium was formed. A natural step in, in the forward direction in terms of consolidating the quantum opportunity for Africa. We have, we’ve done this before.
[00:04:41] So over the past two years, I’ve been talking to different people across the continent to get this off the ground and yeah.
[00:04:49] We were able to begin conversations, you know, show that we had the capacity to do it. Running round tables, bringing leaders together and just gauging interest and engagement and yes, the community.
[00:05:04] Our Discord is almost 200 people who are really (Oh, wow. That’s amazing.) engaged, sharing opportunities, talking about quantum every day.
[00:05:13] And that community is expanding. We’ve got a core team, so we’ve got a team that comes together every week to talk about Africa, to talk about strategy, to just to scan the ecosystem and look at what we should be doing.
[00:05:25] So yeah, our LinkedIn has been on fire. As you have, you may have noticed as well.
[00:05:31] We are, you know, determined to go all the way.
[00:05:33] Veronica: You’re so right. You’re so right about community. You can have great technology and you can have funding, but it’s that connection and the enthusiasm and just the learning process. There’s really nothing like community to really make things take off.
[00:05:47] So obviously you’ve built a really strong one and in looking through your LinkedIn page, your personal LinkedIn page, obviously building community has been something you’ve always done as a mentor, as an entrepreneur. You were involved in the solar power industry for a little bit.
[00:06:02] You were a physics teacher. That community building skills is, you’ve obviously been, that’s always been a priority for you.
[00:06:07] Farai: Yes, indeed. And one of the things I think maybe exciting to know has been, for example, our weekly happy hour, how it came to be.
[00:06:15] Because every other time we’re always thinking about how do we get people together? Because from our experience, when people come together, then a lot can happen.
[00:06:24] That’s why I am here where I am. There are people that I’ve met in the community in some random places, but that have introduced me to people who have helped me to get where I am today.
[00:06:35] Our happy hour, as much as it is the Africa Quantum Consortium Happy hour, a global happy hour, we get people from all across the body. The reason why we did that was we realized through experience over time that when our platforms are serious and, you know, an agenda, we are already defining who should be in the room and why you should be in the room, what should you be interested in and all that.
[00:06:58] So sometimes it makes it hard for people who are not yet sure, because quantum can be intimidating and it’s hard for somebody to claim that for sure, I want to do this. For sure, i’m an expert in this. For sure, what I’m doing in this field matters. It’s hard, you know, to do that because it’s a very complex field, so when you let the guard down and you just say to people, come, let’s talk. That is what is very important. Whatever you bring to the table is important for this community. It changes the paradigm. It changes the way things happen, and you will be surprised or maybe even not be surprised to know that it is through our happy hour that we have actually achieved so much more
[00:07:40] Because most people who were part of our meetings never used to unmute the mic, come on the happy hour and unmute the mic and tell us about the amazing things they’re working on because nobody is expecting anything, right? The expectations are very low on that platform, so you know, you, nobody judges you, nobody feels like you are talking about things that are off topic.
[00:08:01] There is no agenda. You come and go as you please. Before you know it, somebody in the room is interested in the same, or know somebody who can be useful as a collaborator, as a connection and things happen.
[00:08:13] So, our Happy Hour is a place which has, you know, initiated a lot of collaborations, relationships, connections, and keeps on, giving every day like every week.
[00:08:25] And when we receive new, you know, signups and members, and when these people come, they also can host the Happy Hour, which makes them belong.
[00:08:34] We had a member who had never thought they could step up and lead a, a meeting. And they did.
[00:08:41] Veronica: Right. Right. So given all these folks that you’re talking to and the wide range of experience, where do you think the first African quantum breakthrough might emerge in research or use cases or just brilliant people doing important work?
[00:08:56] Farai: I think use case. Use case,
[00:08:59] because, for example, when we talk about quantum in the community, one school of thought is there’s no need to be talking about quantum. We need to do the basics and sort out the basic stuff in Africa instead of focusing on these, you know, cutting edge, bleeding edge technologies
[00:09:14] and so therefore people are skeptical when you talk about this, when you talk about technology for technology’s sake. There is a lot of pressure to think about technology in a way that fits within the context of the continent and solve problems. So that pressure will always be weighing on everyone who talks about tech in Africa.
[00:09:33] And I think it’s good because it forces our, you know, innovators and leaders to think about how to employ the technology to change something, no matter how small.
[00:09:44] That’s where we are. That’s the advantage of Africa. Your returns are outsized because there’s still, you know, so much to change. So a small shift. In the technological, you know, efficiency in outcomes in general, it has got a huge impact on economic value.
[00:10:03] Because that’s the same thing that happened with the mobile phone, for example. We are a mobile first continent.
[00:10:07] We don’t have banks all over and ATMs all over, and you can’t fit an ATM in the context of our markets going to the vegetable market and the nature of those environments. But when somebody can transact from their phone, can buy vegetables, tomatoes, and buy goods and services using their phone, it becomes practical.
[00:10:27] I’ve used mobile money in Zimbabwe. It allows me to remit money from here straight to my mother’s mobile number, and she goes into town
[00:10:34] and does what she needs to do. That’s a game changer.
[00:10:37] Veronica: Right. And you mentioned having to convince some leaders that, oh, average people as well, to focus on this cutting edge technology that, you know, it’s not quite there yet, but it’s fast on its way.
[00:10:49] What risk do you see if Africa doesn’t move fast enough on quantum?
[00:10:52] Farai: So we have what we call the Agenda 2063, for example. It has always been conceived by our leadership, even in history, that it is going to take having Africa as a common market in order to push for the levels of economic growth that are required for the continent to catch up with where the rest of the world is.
[00:11:16] In order for us to do that, we need all the tools that we can gather, and as part of those tools in that toolbox, quantum is a very important lever that we need to add.
[00:11:28] In order to achieve our goals of economic growth across the body in all the countries, we need to do something differently or find some, you know, magic, and that magic is going to come through technology. We’ve got the youths, which is the demographic dividend.
[00:11:45] Also, we’ve got people who are energized, who are eager, who are capable, who want to do things. But you also want to give these people the tools in order to do what they can do.
[00:11:55] It could be in agriculture, it could be manufacturing, it is elsewhere. Then you say, what are the technological tools that give us that opportunity of doing much more with less and getting us on track for that kind of economic growth that we need to make the continent develop at the rate that it should.
[00:12:11] It means you need more tools in that toolbox and quantum is one of those. We have gone so far with others, but quantum is multidisciplinary is a game changer and there’s no way that we can let that slip through our fingers.
[00:12:27] One, the world is at a place where there’s a convergence of factors that I feel are giving African advantage. We love the geopolitical shifts. Others may not like them, but we love them because no country, no economy has ever developed when it had it easy. So when there is a crisis, it forces people to innovate. When Africa is forced into a trade
[00:12:52] corner instead of an aid corner, then something changes. Our politicians change the way they think because they’re no longer being embraced the way they used to be.
[00:13:03] So we begin to see things for what they are, and it means that it becomes hard to stay power, it becomes hard to stay relevant unless we change something. So they are, a positive, you know, shock waves that come from where we are: geopolitically, the technological landscape, generative AI.
[00:13:22] Social media is allowing information to surface, to spread and knowledge to surface and spread faster. And, the world is much more connected. So it’s a happy coincidence of factors that I think gives us no other option except to get our acts together, you know, and make things work.
[00:13:42] And harness this moment. Others think that the world is getting worse. As far as I’m concerned,
[00:13:50] the world is getting better. We just need to harness this moment for what it is, instead of, you know, I don’t know wishing it away and wishing things were different because I think it wouldn’t work for communities like mine where innovation has been stifled.
[00:14:04] We have been advocating for a situation room in Africa.
[00:14:07] A situation room where we talk about all these emerging technologies and we’ve got a strategic, team of experts strategically sitting down every day, every week, and then sending you know, information to the policy makers to tell them about how the ecosystem is evolving and what should Africa be doing.
[00:14:25] We want our leaders to get into the room knowing what we are good at, what is our strength? Using that for our engagement and for our collaborations and conversations, our diplomatic engagements and everything. AQC is a very ambitious project, which is trying to connect different levers across Africa.
[00:14:48] We are just advocates for development and growth in Africa at all levels. Really.
[00:14:54] Veronica: And like you said, it is certainly a moment of upheaval. But sometimes you need that crisis to, force you to act and actually move forward. And the thing about quantum is it is so future focused. I think people want to know that we’re training our young people to be able to have a good job in the future and thinking about how to solve some of the big problems that the world is facing.
[00:15:16] Some of our political leaders don’t have quite the vision of the future that I think we wish they would, but but yeah, that is really exciting to be that bridge and to connect all those groups, political politics and business and community. So if you, if you could make one major investment in Africa’s quantum ecosystem what would you prioritize?
[00:15:34] Farai: Two things: students. We’ll go to the back and to the front and synchronize that, and then make the pipeline begin to run. So we need education. So I’ll go back to high school.
[00:15:45] That’s why I’m a high school teacher and I love it and I feel it’s a very critical, you know, part of workforce development. Teachers are critical . We spend so much time helping them see how the side of technology and innovation is evolving and as part of the workshops make them aware of that
[00:16:08] you may actually miss this part. When teachers are in the classroom, the moments that are actually enjoyable are when you’re not talking really about adding numbers, subtracting numbers, and correcting grammar and all this, you know, subject oriented talk.
[00:16:23] It is when you connect your subject to what excites young people about how our world is shaping up.
[00:16:28] So if our high school students are made aware of some of these, careers and areas that are evolving in technology.
[00:16:37] That is what drives people into a field. I can be the person who makes a student decide to go to a university and want to do quantum engineering. To do, you know, quantum computing, to focus on quantum communications, to do quantum sensing.
[00:16:53] Mm-hmm. And to do electrical engineering. Right. And to do, you know, maybe do law, but focus on policy or on ethics in quantum, whatever it is. Teachers are very important. A very important part. So we are doing, for example, a Quantum Corps in Africa, a project with the Consortium because we want to get teachers into the room.
[00:17:15] These teachers are going go back into the classroom and they’re going to be
[00:17:19] Farai: the founding partners of this community or this pipeline of young talent that comes into the ecosystem. It is a quantum aware person that is important in the ecosystem because if quantum is going to be
[00:17:31] for experts, then it doesn’t work in our society and we don’t need it.
[00:17:34] We need the high level expertise in the field, granted for sure, but getting this whole wide base of people who are quantum aware.
[00:17:44] I think it has got more benefit for society and community and for innovation, for socioeconomic outcomes than what a PhD expert will ever be able to do
[00:17:58] Veronica: See the use cases that we need as opposed to ones that are maybe just more academic and
[00:18:02] Farai: yes, so that is the teaching side.
[00:18:04] And so that’s education. Then we need the entrepreneurial side. When all these high level expertise is generated in the labs and on open source platforms and in research from our diaspora, we need that to turn into products and services.
[00:18:21] We need also startups so that people can see the technology being implemented and working out and making money and changing outcomes and driving the economy.
[00:18:30] So that needs the startup side to be fixed. So I think when those are sorted, then it incentivizes because your startups become successful, generate resources and money and networks and power. If you want to invest back into academia and redirect the skills that they have to come out of it, and we can help foundations, we can fund scholarships, we can have people who have, who know that if I go into this, I’m going to have a job and this is, the job is going to be a startup and organization x.
[00:18:57] And then it trickles down to even continue driving that whole pipeline. And so this is an economy that begins to form.
[00:19:04] That is the way to drive quantum forward in Africa and everything else.
[00:19:08] Veronica: Right. So you’ve worked in Africa, you’ve worked in the U.S. What blind spots do you notice in how the West talks about Africa, views Africa, when it comes to deep technology?
[00:19:19] Farai: Thank you so much for that. So it’s really a very important question. You’ll
[00:19:24] not believe this. Now that we are a consortium launched and public facing, we get a lot of people expressing interest to collaborate and talk to us about how to partner and you know, a significant part of our time is spent educating them about Africa.
[00:19:42] Because you won’t believe how much people don’t know about the continent. Some of the questions are as basic as not even understanding that in Africa there are high rise buildings. There are paved roads. People know how to use cell phones. There are five star hotels.
[00:20:01] So we spend more, most of our time educating people about what Africa looks like, what it is able to do, what is possible, including the quantum outputs out of the continent.
[00:20:13] One of the things that we’re working on is the State of Quantum in Africa white paper. It is because even our experts feel like they’re not promoted and celebrated and known, and their research is not valid, valued, and validated and receives the same, you know, the same level of respect as others. So that is the sort of Africa, an underdog,
[00:20:37] an area that shouldn’t be talking about technology that has got much more important problems to focus on first before quantum and then other technology.
[00:20:45] And many of that, you know, that stereotype, but that is not Africa. It has got capable people. Some of the top leaders in the world of technology, including even in the big companies like Google are from Africa.
[00:20:58] We have got entrepreneurs who are setting up an AI data factory in Africa. We have got one of the largest refineries in the world in oil, in Nigeria, in Africa,
[00:21:09] driven, invested in, conceptualized by African engineers, by African entrepreneurs, by African investors. That’s the story of Africa and that is the story that we always have to remind them of.
[00:21:24] We do what we do because we are good at what we do.
[00:21:27] We’ve got a vision and foresight to do it, and we’ve got a very capable community to be able to drive things forward.
[00:21:35] We are very confident of our vision and we can achieve it on our own with well-meaning partners for sure. We’ll need support and partnership. That’s the way the world works. It has happened elsewhere. It can also happen
[00:21:47] in Africa. We want to solve those problems and that’s why we are doing what we are doing. And if you are, don’t want to join us to do it, so please, step aside, let us do it on our own and we’ll get there.
[00:21:58] Veronica: Just looking through the Consortium’s website and watching the videos and looking at all the members, you’re certainly building the platform that will show everyone that
[00:22:06] Africa is just a participant in world affairs like everyone else, and should have the same credibility and resources. I did also notice on your LinkedIn page someone sent you a DM about buying the group, that seemed like the height of arrogance and I loved your response. “What we built isn’t a press release, it’s infrastructure.
[00:22:25] Continental, strategic and uncompromising.” I thought that was the perfect response to a ridiculous request like that.
[00:22:32] Farai: Thank you. Thank you. We also have our diaspora engaged on this. Most of us want to get a day when we go back home because there is something that we miss about home.
[00:22:42] You know, this diaspora wants to invest back there, so they come here, contribute at the highest level, are capable enough, and know what we should be doing back in Africa. And we are building a platform that allows them to contribute back home because at the end of the day, they want to retire there.
[00:23:00] I haven’t met somebody who has come, who has moved out of Africa to come here, who tells me that they want to retire and stay in the US. They want to go back.
[00:23:07] Veronica: I did wanna ask you one last question. You, I was looking through, as I said, your LinkedIn and you have a Master’s of Science in Condensed Matter Materials
[00:23:16] and Applied Physics. But most recently you got a Communicating Science for Policy certificate.
[00:23:23] What did you learn from that experience and how do you use storytelling to get your message across?
[00:23:28] Farai: Thank you for that. Yes. When I talk about myself, I say I feel so lucky and sometimes I’m like, I feel so smart that I jumped on quantum.
[00:23:37] It has allowed me to talk to people in investments, people in business, your startups, your youths, your people in education, and be a teacher as well, talk to policymakers. So every day I talk to all these different players and I have to talk their language.
[00:23:53] For example, when you get experts to go to Congress and they have to give evidence, it could be to advocate for expanding funding or refinancing of the National Quantum Initiative and things like that. The way that they have to present their technologies to Congress is different from the way that they present their technology in a Nature publication, which is focused on scientists. So figuring out what are those incentives and those, you know, buttons to press in order to make this make sense to a policy maker, to a business investor, to an investor, to an entrepreneur, to a high school student, to a teacher.
[00:24:40] Just appreciating the importance of incentives has been really a game changer to say when you’re speaking to a community or to a person, you want to understand how are they rewarded in this conversation or in the work that they do every day in the things that they’re interested in.
[00:24:56] And how do you package, what are you talking about in a way that speaks to the things that they’re already doing.
[00:25:02] So that course was a very important one for me because we had case studies on presentations that were done during the Covid times in Congress, in the political space to calibrate leaders on what needed to happen. What was the truth, what was the ground truth? Because information is distorted as it circulates, and it is important to make our leaders know what exactly is true.
[00:25:27] Like for quantum as well. There’s a lot of hype in the space. So yes, there are people who drive fear and think that fear drives adoption. But when it comes to making solid investments and making plans for the long haul, our leaders deserve to know the truth. And if we’re going to be serious about advocating for advancing quantum in Africa, we need to tell our leaders the truth.
[00:25:52] Because we may not be the best place where quantum computers are made, but they could be something that we can leverage that we are good at, that we are already strong. And so this is why I was talking about the situation room.
[00:26:05] It is a place where we want to be able to communicate at a strategic level. What does it mean if we’re not involved in quantum? How does that look like at a diplomatic level? At a socioeconomic level and our role as a people, as a continent, as individual countries, what does it mean? So we are forced to look at all these economies, understand their growth trajectories, their challenges and their opportunities, and to look at the evolution of quantum technologies and say, these are your advantages.
[00:26:41] And there are companies that are using rare earths as qubits, and you are having a startup or an organization in your country, which is already beneficiating rare earths and is not telling you the truth about where they’re shipping them to. And you may want to know that as the Minister of Minerals and economic development in your country, and you may have to change the incentives and the engagement
[00:27:06] between this startup X and your government Y in order to leverage what you have, you may have to make them redirect some, you know, value addition in the country. Begin to build capacity and begin to fund some research in this particular mineral ore resource. So that you begin to get much more out of the supply chain than just extraction and shipping.
[00:27:35] One of the problems in Africa is that our leaders tend to appreciate foreign expertise more than local expertise. And we end up having to calibrate them and say, these global experts are very good and, we respect them, but they don’t have the context of Africa.
[00:27:54] They don’t have the nuances of how things work in Africa. And sometimes. They may also not be the person you want in your situation room because their incentives are not aligned with the incentive for Africa.
[00:28:08] We want them to know that they can engage with us at such a strategic level because our outcomes and our interests are tied hip to hip because we are Africans, we love Africa. We will go out of our way to understand all these levers that are moving in the ecosystem and what it takes to make things work to the advantage of Africa.
[00:28:30] Veronica: Right, right. Well,
[00:28:31] Thank you so much for your time today. It’s been wonderful to hear about the Consortium and everything that’s going on. Congratulations for launching such a successful enterprise adventure. Thanks again for joining us today.
[00:28:42] Farai: Thank you so much for having me.
Host Veronica Combs is a quantum tech editor, writer and PR professional. She manages public relations for quantum computing and tech clients as an account manager with HKA Marketing Communications, the #1 agency in quantum tech PR. You can find them on X, formerly known as Twitter, @HKA_PR. Veronica joined HKA from TechRepublic, where she was a senior writer. She has covered technology, healthcare and business strategy for more than 10 years. If you’d like to be on the podcast yourself, you can reach her on LinkedIn, Veronica Combs, or you can go to the HKA website and share your suggestion via the Contact Us page.
November 4, 2025
