Voury Ignegongba

Voury Ignegongba – President, Africans in Boston

Voury Ignegongba is a Chadian-American business man and real estate developer who founded Africans in Boston in 2010. A son of a diplomat, Voury was born in N’Djamena, Chad and grew up in Central and Western Africa (Cameroon, Mauritania, Niger, Mali) where he attended the local international French schools.

Voury was exposed to a broad range of countries and culture at an early age including France, the United States, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria. In 1995, upon graduation with honors from the “Lycee francais Liberte” of Bamako, Mali … Voury moved to Washington, DC to pursue his undergraduate education before joining McGill University in Montreal, QC where he completed a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2000.

Voury then went on to spend the next six years in Boston, MA where he worked for technology company Teradyne, Inc. and got promoted with an assignment in Japan where he resided for one year living in Kumamato and Tokyo. In 2009 Voury established Makumba Estates, a Real Estate development and investment firm based in Cambridge, MA. He serves as the firm CEO. Ignegongba also serves as President of Africans in Boston.

Africans in Boston Inc. is an organization that fosters the socio-economic and educational development of its members by offering a platform that connects the African Diaspora in the greater Boston area and in the state of Massachusetts. The organization provides various resources to its members. From 2014 to 2016, he spearheaded the launch of “Sarah Technologies” an Internet and Telecommunications start-up based in N’Djamena, Chad that provides internet, consumer electronics, and telecommunications equipment products and services and established it as the “go-to” location in N’Djamena. During that period, he also helped with marketing and renovation efforts at “Cosmos Big Guest House” hotel in Moursal, N’Djamena.

Voury speaks English, French, Spanish, Japanese and Mundang and believes in sustainable development (i.e. education, access to water and electricity for African communities in general and Chad in particular).

Voury has a strong interest in IT/technology, entertainment (music, dance, film), karate. He has volunteered and mentored young-adults at Year Up Boston and New York City for over 3 years and has been involved with philanthropy work by raising funds for WGBH Educational Foundation.

Alex Inyagwa

Alex Inyagwa – Clerk, Africans in Boston
Alex Inyagwa is from East Africa where “we all stand strong and tall United in the spirit of Africa”. He holds a Masters Degree in Philosophy and worked once as a youth counselor. He currently operates his own private business. Alex has worked with different communities and individuals in Worcester and Springfield. Alex listens to and appreciates all opinions. He has been advising diaspora members relocating to Africa by analyzing attractive healthy investments in smaller cities. “We realize that most people relocate to big cities, this has led to a monopoly rather a decentralization of infrastructure in Africa”. Alex strongly believes that learning from its mistakes and failures, Africa can finally move forward. Alex enjoys soccer as a hobby.

Kobena Bonney

Kobena Bonney – Director, Africans in Boston

Kobena is the current President of the Ghana Association of Greater Boston (GAGB). GAGB is a charitable and socio-cultural mutual aid organization of Ghanaians and friends of Ghana in the Greater Boston region of Massachusetts. He is also the Vice President of the Boston Pan African Forum (BPAF). The BPAF is an open-membership organization that was created in 1997 in order to promote a widespread appreciation of current social, economic, political and other issues affecting relations between Americans and peoples of African descent around the world.
Kobena works out of downtown Boston for the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC). He is the Coordinator of the MassMATCH Program, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ initiative to Maximize Assistive Technology (AT) in Consumers’ Hands. He is a longtime AT user and enthusiast. He has decades experience using and working with Assistive Technology. His passion is to promote awareness of and affordable access to AT for people with disabilities everywhere.
Before coming to work at MRC in 1998, Kobena worked in Toms River, New Jersey for the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CBVI) as a Technological Services Specialist. Between 1999 and 2006, Kobena worked for the Massachusetts Association for the Blind (now MAB Community Services) in three different capacities – Newsline Coordinator, Director of Communication Services, and Regional Director of MAB’s operations in Western Massachusetts.
Kobena holds a B.A. in Political Science, with concentration in International Relations from Swarthmore College and an M.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Boston University. Kobena lives in the Boston area with his family. is interests include reading, listening to the radio, sports, and advocacy on a range of sociopolitical topics.

David Nnyanzi

David Nnyanzi – Director, Africans in Boston
Dr. David Nnyanzi is from Uganda and has a deep familiarity with the development issues facing local villagers. His doctoral studies in sociology at Boston College makes him uniquely situated to lead a research effort bringing together students and faculty from the University of Notre Dame and Uganda Martyrs University (UMU), Ford’s partner institution in Uganda, where he is a lecturer in the Institute of Ethics and Development. Dr. Nnyanzi studied in a seminary high school and then went to a Jesuit college. After college, he obtained a scholarship to finish his theology studies in Detroit. He studied there for a short time in 1999 but didn’t think he was called to be a priest. He then flew back to Uganda and returned the scholarship. Then he came back to the US on his own and went to Boston College, which his bishop recommended. He then received Jesuit scholarships to attend and a Jesuit priest in Boston.