Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Makes Surprise Appearance in Rwanda

Alibaba founder Jack Ma, together with Rwandan President Paul Kagame (upper left) along with Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang (upper right) and attended the Africa Business Heroes awards ceremony on December 13, 2025. Images via the Rwandan Presidency.

Jack Ma, the legendary Chinese tech mogul and founder of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, made a surprise appearance in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Saturday to attend the African Business Heroes awards, which he launched in the late 2010s.

Ma was once a very visible figure in Africa during his tenure at Alibaba, but that all changed after he resigned from the company as part of a crackdown on Chinese technology companies by the central government in Beijing.

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by Eric Olander

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