The quiet revolution: What the rest of the world can learn from Africa

Genocidal slaughter in the Central African Republic. Civil war in South Sudan, pitting Dinka and Nuer tribesmen in yet another age-old conflict. Famine threatening northern Kenya and the Sahel, leaving millions dependent on dwindling international aid.

So goes one more chapter in the story of Africa that we have come to know and hate. Against the drum-beat of bad news, we too often forget the other story — the good news, if you will. And yet it is there in abundance, almost everywhere you care to look. Put aside the cliche of a ‘rising Africa’ and the continent’s accelerating economic emergence, true as it might be. Instead, let us look at just three examples of where Africa is not merely emerging but dominating.

Hollywood owns the global box office. But when it comes to the sheer number of movies made, the laurel goes to Nollywood. In recent years Nigeria’s film industry has become the second-largest in the world, ahead of the US and behind only India. By various accounts, some 300 producers churn out 50 or so new titles each week, generating an estimated $600 million yearly and employing more than one million people.

BACK-HANDED COMPLIMENT

Incredibly, the movie business has become the country’s No. 2 jobs-generator, after agriculture. And while Hollywood turns out films at an average cost of $250 million, Nigerian producers do so on as little as $25,000. Most are made in less than a month and are profitable within a few weeks of release, according to the magazine Africa Renewal.

They have to be. Why? Because pirates so quickly distribute them across Africa. In its way, that’s a back-handed compliment. Nollywood owes its tremendous popularity to both its speed and, more importantly, everyday relevance. For Nollywood is the stuff of everyday African life. Small wonder that Nollywood stars are known across the continent. They are the face of a modern Africa — home-grown, not imported.

Shift from Lagos to Accra and a second force defining the new Africa. Call it the technologic leap-frog effect. Joe Mensah, general manager of IBM Ghana, sees the unprecedented as a daily phenomenon — five profoundly disruptive technologies converging in Africa in ways that, together, will change the world: cloud computing, big data, social media, mobile computing and the proliferation of sensor networks. For IBM, Accra is nothing less than a test-bed for a global technological revolution.

UNSUSTAINABLE PRESSURE

Like many other African cities, Accra’s population is exploding, up by 35 per cent in the last decade and putting unsustainable pressure on public services.

How to cope? According to IBM, the answer is next-generation technology. Ultra-modern mobile phone systems can do everything to help businesses pay salaries and register sales as well as assist local governments to collect taxes. Big Data analytics can help de-bottleneck traffic. Smart electric meters and power grids help balance energy loads and diversify fuel supplies. If this sounds like pie-in-the-sky, think again. According to Mensah, this is the here-and-now — the emerging face of Accra and a model for the rest of Africa.

Kenya, too, is a potential pioneer. Safaricom is a household name. M-Pesa has revolutionised how people pay bills, collect salaries and order goods. So ordinary has all this become that mobile users take it for granted. We forget that this is cutting-edge technology, far more advanced than what you find in most of Europe or the US.

Ironically, surprisingly few Africans consider developments such as these as part of ‘their’ story. To many, all this is not even particularly new; it is newcomers, such as myself, who are most impressed. And yet, this is Africa’s trajectory. In important ways, the sky really is the limit — if coupled with enlightened social and economic policy and the basics of good governance.

Michael Meyer, a long-time editor and correspondent for Newsweek, is dean of the graduate school of media and communications at Aga Khan University in Nairobi. ([email protected])