Espionage, Stealing and Capitalism: China Just follows Europe and America
Without aggression and stealing capitalism is not possible. European burglary in Africa made the western prosperity possible. China wealth creation and accumulation won't go without aggression and stealing.
According to Max Weber in societies with different religions, most successful business leaders are Protestant. The reason, he wrote in his essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, is the belief that salvation comes to a protestant through accumulation of wealth with work hard, Read more [...]
The Danger of Silicon-Valley Driven Startup Mania in Africa
Africa is slowly driven into the worldwide Startup mania. The new way to be cool for young people and graduates is to start or join a startup. Accelarators are sprouting around the continent, and some investors have opened operations in Africa. Wired Magazine wrote "Want to Become an internet billionaire? Move to Africa. Forbes echoed the story in its post, "Africa Could Make You an Internet Billionaire," saying, “More than ever before, this is the best time for venture capitalists and Y Combinator-type Read more [...]
Africa Drama: The Working Poor and The Rich Subalterns
There are two kinds of people in Africa, those who can't make a living regardless of how much they put in, and those with lavish lifestyle and privileges regardless of how little they contribute.
The first group is made of those who has not contact with "white" people, and the second is made of people who has contact with "white" people.
I recently met a German businessman whose family has been working in Africa woods export business for more than half century. He used to live and work in Ghana, Read more [...]
Close the Incubators and Accelerators, Open FabLabs and MakerSpaces instead
Africa needs more people with the skills to fabricate something than additional people with oratory prowess.
Our continent has missed the industrial revolution and mass production manufacturing, but there is a new upcoming revolution based on digital manufacturing and 3D printing. It'll be something so transformational that we can't just afford to miss it. (More on digital manufacturing and 3D printing later)
In this post, I'm calling African investors, individuals and governments to avoid Read more [...]
Get Funding for Your Ideas: Try Grants and Subsidies
Most of startups die simply because they ran out of money. There is a "Research and Development" period for any business that is generally chaotic, capital intense, stressful, but is absolutely necessary for the founders to learn the business they are in, and also to discover their business model and product-market fit.
Big corporation and universities receive huge amount of money from governments, chambers of commerce, foundations and banks to finance the trial and error period of their new activities. Read more [...]
The Hidden Trap That is Killing The African Internet Entrepreneurs
Low bandwidth and expensive access limit a lot what you can do with Internet in Africa. Therefore, if you want to build a successful web solution for African audience it should be lightweight using mostly text and a little bit of images. It's advised to avoid using voice or video.
Unfortunately, even if you are successful building this kind of lightweight website you'll fail, because there is a hidden trap.
A text based Internet works very well in the western or eastern world because of 99% Read more [...]
Nigeria: The Poison is the Pot
We invented the modern ethics of philanthropy and poverty eradication to escape the need to change a money system that is fueled by the very existence of poverty and scarcity.
We created an industry of 'waste management' that tempers our anger and numbs us to the fact that we abide in a cradle-to-grave, use-and-dump global economy - a behemoth that necessarily generates 'waste' by silently celebrating planned obsolescence.
We institutionalized illiteracy reduction programs and no-one-left-behind-schemes Read more [...]
I wish to be a light that shines in darkness
A very close friend recently asked me a question. "What do you wish to achieve in life? ", he asked with a rather pragmatic tone.
Quite flummoxed by the question, I paused trying to gather my thoughts. Finally after quite a pondering, these words rolled out of my mind.
I wish to be happy. I wish to possess a profound mental, visual and audio acuity, not for the sake of aptitude, but so that I may capture, in aberrant amusement, the intricacies and the transient nature of our world and therefore Read more [...]
Where is the problem?
... I'm the most stupid person to test any idea on. If I can understand it, the world will.
Can you explain it in simple word, like if you were talking to a 7 years old kid?
ex.: Mama (target market) is sick (pain/problem). If we don't do anything, she could die (How critical is the problem/pain). We have to do something, right? (check if people agree on the problem you see. If they won't agree, they would NEVER buy your solution). Ok. Now, You run to pharmacy to buy medicine and I call for Read more [...]
Forget the Web or the Mobile, Radio is the Biggest Media in Africa
Why should I always play the Joy Killer character in the Movie? I hate the role, but someone has to bring the hypsters home after the cash burning party.
Radio is the biggest media in Africa, and the most influential. Internet is marginal in terms of timeshare and influence. The reason is simple, most people in Africa are illiterate. They don’t know how to read and write. There is an additional group of people who are literate or semi-literate but don’t like to write or read. My estimate is Read more [...]
45 lessons learned from my participation to an Accelerator
During 7 weeks, march-june 2012, I've participated in Helsinki (Finland) and in Silicon Valley (San Francisco) to the open source accelerator program called Startup Sauna. That was an amazing experience. Below are the 45 main lessons I've learned, and keep using building my business.
1. Business is all about discipline. Disciplined People, engaged in disciplined thought, taking disciplined action. (Quoting from Jim Collins)
2. Not all people wandering are lost (Quoting from Steve Blank). If Read more [...]
Invest in Understanding
She responded "Oh yes, I know. You feel a big wave of pleasure that spreads all over and you want to scream, and you close your eyes and you scream, right?"
They replied "That's correct. It's so good!"
"Yes, but ... I'm virgin ..." she timidly commented
And they all burst into laughter, and the girly party continued with sassier topics.
You can't explain orgasm to a virgin girl. She could read about it in books or have watched it in porn movies; she knows what it's, but she can't Read more [...]
The Best Political Tweets on Africa
Africa is rising, but has to face huge challenges and scary monsters.
To help you read the African map, I've collected the best tweets from the best African politics commentator: Okwu Nwachinaemelu.
If you are interested in African history and its contemporary evolution, you'll be inspired, amused and challenged by Okwu tweets and articles.
"I might be wrong, but I aim to educate. ... I don't care if we run deficits to improve our education system, revamp health care & achieve 99% literacy. Read more [...]
The Top 10 Fears of African Diaspora About Africa
They wash dishes in restaurants, clean toilets and look after elderly incontinent people in the West. That makes the majority of the 30 million who have emigrated from Africa. Some are much luckier, they work in subaltern management positions in corporate America or in public institution in Europe. Few are real stars, successful with high pay and social status.
Regardless of their current fate, they all share one thing in common: most of them want to return to Africa.
The recent medias' drumbeat Read more [...]
The African Reddit Launched: Find All Africa Latest News in One Place
Is there any place where you can find all the latest and most interesting African news online? No, There isn't. And that's the reason why the largest African news aggregator has been launched this week. It's called MyAfrika
A news aggregator is a place where people come to share interesting content they have discovered across the web. They would submit the content in the form a link or a text post, then other users would vote their submission "up" or just "ignore". Users' vote determine how Read more [...]