Mutesi Gasana Chantal

Founder and Managing Director, Ubuntu Publishers and Arise Education

Rwanda

Mutesi Gasana Chantal is the founder and managing director of Ubuntu Publishers and Arise Education, where she focuses on strengthening literacy in Rwanda and building a more inclusive, resilient publishing sector. She has produced over 50 children’s books, trained more than 120 emerging creative professionals through the Arise Book Academy, and reached over 100,000 individuals through nationwide reading initiatives like the Umurage International Book Festival. Her work is shaped by her childhood experiences of fleeing Rwanda and experiencing educational poverty firsthand. That experience led her to see books as more than learning tools and as a way to preserve culture and support social change. She now works to position Rwanda as a hub for creative industries, using storytelling as a way to drive broader systems change and support national healing.