Strangely, I have been thinking all night about the supreme effort African techies put in to get results and have found new respect for people like Churchill Nanje Mambe who built Njorku.com with 18kbps Internet in Buea, Cameroon. He should have the same story as William Kamkwamba "The boy who harnessed the wind. Maybe he should now be named "The boy who harnessed the Internet".Those in Nigeria fare under worse conditions as you have to battle with power, police, perception, Internet/infrastructure issues and even "home trouble" yet they do awesome stuff.The narrative and focus should however change. Our efforts no matter how laudable should not be the focus but solutions to obstacles that have prevented many more Churchills from emerging.
Reading the book "Imagine" by Jonah Lehrer and watching his interview on Colbert Report has made me believe even more in the power of the community and collaboration. Innovation builds on innovation and not just obstacles. Silicon Valley became what it is mainly because people could build on each other's accomplishments and not on the general problems.Pinterest builds on Facebook and Twitter, Instagram builds on Apple and Android now Facebook etc....We need to collectively overcome obstacles to move from "Africa Awesome" to "World Class Awesome"
