Below is a transcript of my points and words from my talk:
What's the first thing you think of when you hear the word Africa? Famine? Poverty? Civil War? Safaris
and maybe lions. Innovation, technology and mobile don't always pop up first.
And yet, if we take a birds-eye view of the continent, we'll see that there's more to it, than war, lions
and diamonds at least as far as numbers go.
It may go without saying but is always worth stating, Africa is not a country over 57 countries.
There's:
1 billion people
Over 2,600 languages. Mind you, that's 2,600 local cultures to address.
Over 500 Million mobile phones
110 Million internet users
A Facebook population of over 25 million
Globally, the narrative on Africa has never been owned by Africans. Sure it's been shaped and
determined by them, but we've never had the chance to fully participate in the narrative.
The past 5 years in my endeavours I've dedicated myself to moving beyond someone who hears the
narrative, to someone who participates and eventually owns the narrative about my continent and my
country.
I conceptualised an award-winning African videogame for Warner Bros.
I curate African film, animation and through AfricanDigitalArt.com a global network of creative
professionals in Africa and of African origin.
My story starts further back. I was born naked just over two decades ago in Nairobi, Kenya in East Africa.
I've since taken quite a liking to clothing since and I've been born and raised in The Green City in The
Sun, Nairobi.
When I was about 7 years old, the clothing or lack thereof, landed me a role in the George Lucas movie
The Chronicles of Young Indiana Jones . It was the one episode which they shot in Africa and I played
"Ubangi Boy" - the last survivor from a village wiped away by a mysterious disease. Has George Lucas
written all over it, doesn't it?
I made up for my lack of lines with ad libs and gave it the performance I thought it deserved. One quip
which made the final cut was a scene where I confessed "I want to go wee-wee" in Swahili and they just
kept going, great stuff, keep him going.
So 15 years later after playing my "wee" role in The Chronicles of Young Indiana Jones I travelled down
to one of Africa's most prestigious film festivals, The Durban International Film Festival in South Africa.
By complete chance I spotted Isaach de Bankole, the same actor I'd worked with years earlier. Only this
time I had made the transition full circle, from playing a role in George Lucas's rendition of Africa to the
world premiere of Dawa, my first film.
Moving from participating in the narrative, to owning it.
Similarly, now I stand here before you, the sole representative of a village you may not be aware of. The
village of digital citizens through Kenya and across Africa. All of whom are determined to play an active
part in reshaping Africa's narrative.
There's a Tanzanian proverb that says Mtumbwi hauwezi kujua panapokuwa pamejaa maji and what
that translates to is that a boat or canoe does not know the depth of the water.
I won't take you deep, but I do want us to sail briskly across so you can get a sense of the undercurrent
that's powered by a new generation of Africans; what Ghanaian economist, George Ayittey calls, in his
famous TED Talk, "The Cheetah Generation."
I run Afrinnovator, one of Africa's leading blogs on Technology and Innovation, and with my partner, we
follow a simple mantra, put Africa on the map. The map in the mind of every global citizen in contact
with the web.
If there's one story on Africa that I can share with you, it would be that of the mobile phone.
Take the Kenyan example of M-Pesa. M-Pesa (M for mobile and Pesa being Money in Swahili) is a
Kenyan mobile payment service that started in 2007. It allows two people to send, withdraw and deposit
money on their mobile phones. In just over 4 years it now has over 13 million Kenyan subscribers
transacting over $500 million per month between them.
To put that in context, PayPal Mobile's total volume for the entire YEAR globally was $600 Million and
the number of M-Pesa transactions is greater than Western Union's global transfers.
To date, M-Pesa's transferred over $7 billion and in 2010 transacted an estimated equivalent of 20% of
Kenya's Gross Domestic Product. Not bad for a 3rd world country.
Whether it's paying for a cab, my groceries, my tab at the bar or coffee shop or even sending money to
my grandma, paying my cousin's school fees; my mobile phone is my wallet, my bank and my insurance.
Google's CEO Eric Schmidt a few months ago implied that they had built the mobile wallet with some
………… (something missing in script). To be honest, Mr. Schmidt, the mobile wallet's existed in Africa for
the past four years.
For Africa, the proponent of change, the currency of today and the economy of tomorrow in Kenya,
Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria and more recently in Egypt and Tunisia, beyond social media and the
internet it's the mobile phone.
So if you ask me what's the one thing I'd like you to remember the next time you think of Africa? Think
mobile. Want another word? Think innovation.
As for me, a storyteller, with my thumb on my keypad, I'll keep shaping and owning the narrative on
Africa, one keystroke at a time.
Thank you.