Tanzania, Aug. 25 -- At 27, Madeleine Shimata has already built a career that cuts across entrepreneurship, fashion, music and academia; a combination she believes should not require a woman to choose one identity over another.

The Morogoro born entrepreneur, model and musician has built her profile both in Tanzania and abroad, earning a First Class Honours degree in Business Entrepreneurship and Innovation from De Montfort University in the United Kingdom before pursuing a Master's degree in Management in Barcelona, Spain.

But beyond the qualifications and public profile is a woman determined to challenge conventional ideas about what a successful Tanzanian woman should look like.

"I can walk into a boardroom as an entrepreneur, onto ...