Things worth echoing and amplifying are happening in Africa’s technology landscape – if you’re reading this, then you already know that.
Hello, Africa
Just look how far we’ve come as a continent connected together and with the rest of the world through social media, affordable smartphones, and local content.
Those with the money are going with their guts and helping to launch start-ups now valued in millions (that would be, of dollars). Young entrepreneurs venturing into the unknown with little or no funding, as the space attracts the cream from Tiger to Echo VC. Developers hacking away, at social and commercial products – apps, systems, software, and gadgets.
Only five years ago talk of accelerators and incubators would be both vague and inaccessible. Yet here we are – from Kenya’s iHub to Nigeria’s Co-Creation Hub, Ghana’s Meltwater to South Africa’s Umbono.
A continent, and a generation, has received permission to dream.
Isidingo
Now that Africa – and not just select countries – is a focal point of discussion around possibilities, now that the continent is changing and thinking through mobile, retail and content, the way we engage our reality must evolve – with technology at its heart.
The demographic bonus of a younger population gives hope, the penetration via the internet gives the numbers plenty of energy, and somewhere at the intersection, innovation has to blossom. There will be more Sayas and more iROKOs, more Ushahidis and more BudgITs – for a local and global audience to explore.
The stories multiply – but we need more storytellers. And of a different hue. Those excited enough, passionate enough to dig deeper, go harder, dive lower. Those who will combine the breadth of an international perspective, with the depth of a unique cultural voice.
A voice that is intensely African; stories that are unrelentingly African – in tone, in scope, in reach.
On 16 | 01 | 14, we are excited to announce what we will be doing about that.
Tech Africa.
This in itself is a media startup – to tell the continuing African technology story. From the CEO’s office in Port Louis to the Technology Club in Kampala, Uganda, we will tell those stories – of successes, failures and ventures made by, and for Africans in the technology space – following the ripple wherever in the world it takes us.
We are geeks (of course), but we also love to tell stories – beyond the figures and the crunched numbers, besides the rounds of investments and buy-outs, outside of the pageview analyses and the moans about designs, we want to talk about everything – from the Nigerian blogger that turned gossip into an art, to the Tanzanian whose tragedy inspired innovation.
Startups, Founders, Entrepreneurs, Investors, Policy Makers, Engineers, Designers, Creatives, Consumers, Businesses, Content Developers, Media Moguls, Journalists – the entire (forgive the cliché) ecosystem.
And we don’t want to do all of the telling. This is a community, only hosted by us and stretched across the continent. We want the players and we want those who are great at telling their stories. So join us.
And welcome. To the now. And the future.
[image credit: Kamapla Skyline by TCD Photography]
