Stories and turning points that shaped my work in African entrepreneurship
Welcome to this series of essays — a journey through the stories, lessons, and inner turning points that shaped my life across culture, creativity, and enterprise. These reflections are drawn from an extended interview recorded in April 2024 with Blessing Abeng, marking ten years of my engagement with African entrepreneurship (2014-2024). Although I did the interview to honour that milestone, I never shared it. Only now, with the launch of the Parminder Vir Network on Substack, do I see its true place and purpose.
These conversations hold the connective tissue between my archive, my memoir-in-progress, and the work I continue to do today. They capture the through-line of my life — from shaping Africa’s most extensive entrepreneurship programme through the Tony Elumelu Foundation, to the earlier decades of work — mapping Black and Ethnic Minority artists in Britain in 1979 and beyond — that prepared me for that role.
I am sharing this series now because the Parminder Vir Network is more than a newsletter. It is a home for connection, reflection, and purposeful transformation. It begins with my ten-year journey in African entrepreneurship and the work I led through the Tony Elumelu Foundation, and it reaches back through the decades of experience that shaped me—my memoir-in-progress, my digital archive, and the years I spent in film, media, and public policy. It also reflects my current exploration of storytelling, culture, technology, and the emerging Global South.
These reflections lay the foundation.
They invite you into the journey behind the journey.
Thank you for reading, for engaging, and for walking with me as these stories unfold. Together, we shape new futures.
