“Africa Needs Cheetahs, Not Hippos” (Photo credit: Jon Gosier)
The Cheetah Code is a film and book that explores Africa’s new creative class and rapidly evolving technology sector:
Africa’s youth population (people between 15 and 30) make up over 20% of the continent’s population and around 40% of the continent’s workforce. The usual story you hear is how this explosion of youth is tied to unemployment, unrest, and crime.
But there is another side to that story. The story of how some of these young, entrepreneurial Africans are changing the future of Africa for the better. Left to their own devices they are creating businesses that employ themselves and their peers, creating new ecosystems for trade, and coming up with disruptive innovations that are boos the continent’s productivity.
Economist and Writer George Ayittey refers to these young millennial go-getters as nimble ‘Cheetah’s’ as opposed to the stagnant ‘Hippos’ of previous generations.
The Cheetah Code, then, is the mindset of these young creatives, moguls, and entrepreneurs. With this project, I hope to explore what drives them to success in spite of the hurdles of their environments
Related articles
- The Cheetah Code, A Film About Africa’s Tech Entreprenuers (appfrica.com)
- 6 fascinating talks charting informal economies (ted.com)
- Can Ghana’s economy prosper against the odds? (cnn.com)
