Mati Nyazema’s Victoria Falls Hotel, Mbano Manor, Awes in Africa

Welcome to Victoria Falls. Mosi-Oa-Tunya — the smoke that thunders — as it was called (still is by some locals) before Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone named it for his queen (Victoria) when he came upon it in 1855 while preaching Christianity in Africa.

Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and recognized as one of the seven natural wonders of the world, it is where you can go—where I went— to meet Dr. Matifadza Nyazema, director, developer, owner and CEO of Mbano Manor, her at-one-with-nature luxury boutique Victoria Falls hotel.

Nyazema is charming, purposeful, down-to-earth, matter-of-fact, family-oriented. What one might call a role model wonder woman.

She visited more than 60 countries during her remarkable international career, much of it in hospitality and tourism; perfect credentials for the five-star eco-luxury lodge experience in a bird and tree sanctuary she has created ten minutes from the iconic waterfall in the filled-with-surprises single traffic light tourism-focused “city” of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Creating Mbano Manor

In the midst of a whirlwind-style semi-retirement that seems more like an intense Zambezi white water river rafting adventure than the more predictable slowing down, Nyazema is being celebrated as the first Black woman in Zimbabwe (very likely southern Africa) to have had a vision and “starting from scratch,” she emphasizes, found the perfect piece of land, raised the necessary investment funding (she made over 100 presentations), led a small design team and built and opened a five-star luxury boutique lodge.

“A number of potential investors couldn’t believe a Black woman could do a five-star lodge,” she laughs. Has she proved them wrong.

“We are not so much competing with local hotels,” she tells me. “We’re measuring ourselves against, for instance, a resort in Singapore, in Norway, in Brazil. Our guest is an international guest who has the capacity and capability to travel globally.”

The kind of guest who, on a business trip or for leisure travel — a family holiday, a honeymoon, a group excursion or tour — wants luxury, exclusivity, and privacy under the African sun when they come to experience this unique Vic Falls destination .

“I sometimes think of Mbano Manor as an elegant camping site. The natural beauty is our highest selling point,” says Nyazema in one of several chats we have during the three-and-a-half days I spend at her Victoria Falls hotel.

A Zimbabwean Woman with a Dream

Nyazema’s curriculum vitae is as impressive as Mbano Manor, the Victoria Falls hotel she has created. She received a bachelor’s in political science from the University of Zimbabwe and a post-graduate diploma in mass communications from the University of Nairobi in Kenya, for which she secured a Danish government scholarship.

She earned a master’s in international hotel management from the University of Surrey (U.K.), having been awarded a British Council scholarship, and later followed up with a Ph.D. in business management and sustainable tourism from the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa).

Back around 2016, “after about 25 years in the hotel industry,” it was a case of, what next?

“I was having a conversation with my husband,” she tells me. On the personal side, she has four children and between her travels, which have only abated somewhat, she is a devoted grandmother to six grandchildren. Her mom, a retired nurse who lives in the U.K., is 91. Her husband, Dr. Norman Nyazema, is a professor of clinic pharmacology with a special interest in public health and nutrition.

“I was saying to my husband, you know what, I’ve always wanted to own a hotel at Victoria Falls,” she continues. Twice the height of the Niagara Falls and the world’s largest sheet of falling water, Victoria Falls is one of Africa’s greatest attractions.

“I had visited the Victoria Falls as a child with my father (a teacher) and my sister and it stayed with me. Where I come from in Zimbabwe (Harare, the capital), a vacation meant spending time with grandparents on the farm. You learned at school, in geography, about the Victoria Falls and felt proud it was in Zimbabwe. But I was probably the only one in my class who had been there, which made it very special.

“Then, having joined the tourism sector, which took me to Vic Falls (by which abbreviated name the town is generally called) two or three times a year, I knew the location, as a tourist destination, was among the best of the best. So it became, if I’m going to own a business, why not in Vic Falls. And that’s exactly what I did.”

It was after the thoughtful 2016 “what next” musings with her husband that her entrepreneurial journey began, leading to the creation of Mbano Manor, her dream Victoria Falls hotel.

“Doing my market research, I found most hotels in and around Vic Falls tended to be bigger. Smaller luxury lodges tended to be around an hour’s drive away,” she says.

“We thought there was a gap, given the way the whole tourism market is evolving, to take that luxury boutique experience and bring it right next to The Falls. And then I found this four acres literally 10 minutes, driving in a very slow car, from the Victoria Falls National Park entrance to The Falls.”

She shares an in-depth account of her life and the journey to build Mbano Manor during a 3-part podcast conversation on Diaspora Food Stories.

Building a Victoria Falls Hotel in the Heart of the Action

Nyazema’s earlier Ph.D. thesis focused on the implementation of Black economic empowerment policy in the hotel industry in South Africa. She was jetting around the world while working on it, “Writing on planes, in cafés. I loved it. I was working as marketing services director at the time for Southern Sun (a South African multinational hospitality company headquartered in Johannesburg).”

Her thesis idea had grown from watching the company train Black South African managers and then place them way off in rural hotels. It is something she “called” her white “the old boys’ network” colleagues on in response to her research findings, she tells me, laughing at her chutzpah when she shares the memory. She is pleased to report that her observations were well received, shook things up and initiated change.

Earlier in her dynamic, high-profile career, Nyazema was British Airways (B.A.) area marketing manager for East and West Africa, which called for her and her family to relocate to Nairobi, Kenya.

Subsequently, when promoted to the position of B.A.’s area marketing manager for Africa, they moved to Johannesburg, where the family still has a house. Aside from being a convenient business base, her two sons live in South Africa.

Nyazema’s last corporate position before she started on her personal entrepreneurial journey in 2016 was that of executive director of the Sandton International Convention Centre, one of South Africa’s most prestigious and technologically advanced business and conference centers. Located in Johannesburg, the center regularly hosts world-class conventions, exhibitions, meetings and events.

All these experiences guided her decisions on where to build, how to build and what she needed to incorporate to create an experience that would be perfect for the more unique business traveler and tourists wanting both luxury and adventure.

Mbano Manor Hotel nestles harmoniously into an indigenous teak forest less than three miles door-to-door from the entrance to “The Falls.”

“There are 18 suites and one villa. It’s small enough to be private,” she says. In its design, she had in mind luxury and a safari feel “while capturing the essence of nature, conservation and sustainability.”

Everything was locally sourced. Only two trees on the property were cut down during construction. Respect goes to Nyazema for the natural materials, the balance, and harmony with nature, the seamless connection between interior and exterior. The label “organic architecture” and the name Frank Lloyd Wright come to mind as I wander around.

There is a seamless flow connecting the forest and the guest experience, whether one is sipping an espresso and relaxing on the chaise lounge in one’s suite, having a dip in the hotel’s pool (the villa has its own small private pool), or while looking at one’s private forest view from the comfort of the extra-long king bed and enjoying the romance that comes with the mosquito net experience—there were no mosquitos.

The public areas of the hotel, similarly, in both decor and functionality, integrate with the environment, blending refined good taste, local art and craft-work and natural materials. Everywhere, large windows and abundant glass advance the visual connection.

The menu, meanwhile, mixes international options, which use local produce with regional specialties. And so when I choose the mazondo, a Zimbabwe favorite, my cow’s heels have been slow-cooked for some hours with tomato and aromatic herbs from the Mbano’s veggie patch.

The dish is beautifully creamy, gelatinous, luscious, flavourful. It comes served with chomolla, a Zimbabwean kale-collard “relish” and sadza, a maize staple and their version of grits.

From dining to room service to reception, friendly staff on hand. Every need was met.

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Victoria Falls Highlights

“In my research, you have this global luxury traveler who wants to experience the bush. So you get people who have perhaps visited Serengeti (in Tanzania), the Kruger Park (South Africa), Hwange National Park (Zimbabwe), Chobe National Park (Botswana). Stayed in luxury lodges at each. They might feel they’ve done the bush and want to continue the African safari experience while visiting the Victoria Falls,” says Nyazema.

Talking about Chobe and Botswana, day safaris are offered from Vic Falls. Reception at Mbano Manor is set up to help guests book safaris, day trips, Zambezi River experiences, helicopter rides, microlight rides, local village visits, fishing trips and all manner of African adventures.

The country of Zambia is just across the bridge that spans The Falls and Namibia’s Caprivi Strip is easily accessible through Botswana’s Chobe National Park. Nyazema advises guests to get a multiple entry visa and make sure they have extra passport pages.

Victoria Falls is part of the mighty Zambezi River, the fourth-longest (after the Nile, the Congo River and the Niger)—and the longest east-flowing—river in Africa. Its source is in Zambia. It then flows successively through Angola, back into Zambia, then borders Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe before making its way through Mozambique and out into the Indian Ocean.

Nyazema’s reception staff arrange for me to be picked up for a sunset Zambezi cruise. The Zimbabwe sunsets, I remember from previous trips to the country, are stunning. Before the wondrous sunset, when a chorus of “wows” emanates spontaneously from fellow passengers as the sky and water turns glinting golden then flaring red, we see elephants, hippos lazing and snorting, crocodiles sunning themselves on the banks.

From the sunset cruise, Nyazema has me delivered at The Boma dinner and drum show, a theatre experience offering a feast of local food. I had buffalo, a first, and kudu, not a first, and bream fished from the Zambezi, recommended by the chef basting a huge splayed and scored hog over a fire pit.

There is, of course, “international” food in abundance and plenty for vegetarians. Remarkably—although when you’re there, you understand as the evening puts an elephantine “e” in extravaganza—this happens seven days a week, attracts 300 people a night and some nights are fully booked months in advance.

“Doc Mati,” as her staff calls her, takes me to The Lookout Café, a must-visit lunchtime restaurant for the incredible gorge views. She drives me to see Vic Falls’ legendary giant baobab tree.

En route, we pass four elephants. “When I go for my morning walk, I watch out for elephants, buffalo and hippos as our Vic Falls house runs next to an elephant path and is close to the river so animals sometimes roam past,” she says.

She also takes me to the original Victoria Falls Hotel, the ancient grande dame built in 1904, a little stodgy now and showing her age, despite a 2013 renovation. But filled with historical memorabilia that is fascinating to view and read.

It is a lovely spot to sit, have a chocolate brownie with ice cream, a cappuccino, and to chat about life in Africa with this relaxed, successful dynamo who knows the continent so well.

Make plans to visit Doc Mati and her staff at Mbano Manor Hotel by going online for rates and availability.  You can also plan your Victoria Falls visit and stay by following Mbano Manor Hotel on Instagram and Facebook.

This story originally appeared in Cuisine Noir Magazine