Central African Excellence Celebrated in Kinshasa
The marble halls of Kinshasa’s Pullman Hotel briefly resembled a United Nations of Central African talent when the third edition of the Congolese Women Excellentia Trophy unfolded under the theme “Women of Central Africa: Ambition, Excellence, Impact.” Founded by the Alpha-Perla Foundation in 2021, the ceremony has grown into a barometer of female leadership across politics, business, academia and culture. This year a jury of journalists, researchers and former laureates sifted through nearly 300 nominations before short-listing fifty figures whose achievements, according to organisers, “shape a more inclusive regional future” (Alpha-Perla communiqué).
Among those fifty, three representatives of Congo-Brazzaville flew to the Democratic Republic of Congo: an influential entrepreneur, a rising party strategist and the now-celebrated faith leader Josiane Mouhani. When her name was announced as winner of the coveted “Woman of Faith” distinction, a standing ovation rippled through the ballroom and a rendition of the regional anthem “Mokilisusu” filled the air. The moment crystallised the quiet yet profound forms of leadership exercised daily by women whose work is often confined to local parishes, schoolyards or health posts.
The Many Hats of Josiane Mouhani
A deaconess by calling, Mouhani is equally a strategist by training. She serves as National Secretary for Gender Affairs within the Congolese Democratic Party (PDC), a component of the presidential majority, and simultaneously heads the nascent NGO “Josiane Mouhani Foundation for the Forgotten.” In her acceptance speech she admitted, “Being a servant of God is not enough; one must translate faith into action, exhort women to cling to hope and accompany them toward self-reliance.” Her words, delivered with composure, echoed the Biblical maxim she often quotes: “With God we shall do exploits.”
Those exploits already carry tangible fingerprints. The foundation operates a mentoring circle for teenage mothers in Brazzaville’s Talangaï district, provides micro-grants for soap-making cooperatives and, more recently, partnered with the Ministry of Social Affairs to refurbish a dilapidated community centre. On her return from Kinshasa, Mouhani unveiled a campaign against juvenile delinquency, or kuluna, pledging to “mobilise mothers so they may educate and shield their sons before the street claims them.” The initiative dovetails with her broader conviction that women are “first responders” to social fracture.
Government Policy and Grass-roots Synergy
Mouhani’s trajectory is not occurring in a vacuum. Over the last decade Brazzaville has quietly erected a policy scaffolding designed to unlock women’s potential. The National Development Plan 2022-2026 reserves an entire pillar for gender parity, while the Ministry for the Promotion and Integration of Women into Development has just finalised a bill that would earmark thirty percent of elective positions for female candidates. Observers note that such frameworks provide a fertile environment for civil-society actors to scale their programmes (Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, policy brief).
In that sense the Woman of Faith award also crowns a convergence between state planning and community initiative. During a courtesy call to the Congolese ambassador in Kinshasa, Mouhani underlined this alignment, stressing that “our grassroots projects gain traction precisely because public authorities set enabling guardrails.” Embassy officials, for their part, lauded the laureate as a “bridge between the Republic’s vision and citizens’ aspirations,” reiterating President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s oft-stated belief that development must be “people-centred and woman-driven.”
Building a Transfrontier Sisterhood
Beyond the individual accolades, the Kinshasa gala operated as a crucible of transborder networking. Delegates from Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and the Central African Republic exchanged WhatsApp contacts, while entrepreneurs pitched joint ventures in agritech and fashion. The Alpha-Perla Foundation has announced that the 2025 edition will include an accelerator boot camp, underscoring its ambition to evolve from symbolic trophy to catalytic platform.
Regional analysts argue that such cross-pollination answers a structural need: Central African markets remain relatively small, yet culturally aligned, making female-led consortia an efficient tool for scaling businesses. Mouhani, who intends to franchise her mentoring model through church networks in Pointe-Noire and Libreville, embodies that spirit. “Our challenges are similar; our solutions must therefore circulate,” she remarked on the sidelines of the ceremony.
From Laurels to Lasting Legacy
The real test for any trophy winner is what happens once the flashbulbs dim. Mouhani appears acutely aware of that reality. Her immediate roadmap includes a national prayer walk for peace, scheduled to coincide with Congo’s 64th Independence Day, and the launch of a revolving fund to ease women’s access to land titles, a hurdle long identified by the African Development Bank as a brake on rural productivity. Discussions are under way with a local micro-finance institution to structure the fund at concessionary rates.
If those projects reach fruition, they will add substance to the symbolic weight of her new statuette. In doing so, they could also furnish a template for the broader cohort of Excellentia laureates: translate recognition into measurable community dividends. For the women of Congo-Brazzaville, and indeed of the wider sub-region, the message is unmistakable: faith, influence and impact are not competing virtues but complementary levers in the ongoing quest for inclusive prosperity.
