JosefScarantino.com

Since my rant on the African tech scene back in July, I have taken a step away from African tech entirely. Well, not entirely.

I still read the same African tech blogs, follow the tweets of hundreds of African techies, and stay plugged in to my LinkedIn groups & discussions, but I haven’t been engaging, which feels tremendously liberating.

I’ve been following African tech for years, long before many of the now-common household names have been around. Most of the people you hear about now were in high school (or middle school!) when I got involved in African tech. I’ve seen things come and go, and heard the hype over and over again, much of it just recycled and rehashed from years past. Over the years, I’ve become both skeptical and hopeful about the tech scene.

I believe without a doubt that the African tech scene is booming and growing extremely quickly and some great things are happening. Those who can weather the storm will be rewarded in the future. But I’ve also become much more skeptical.

I believe the primary shift that hasn’t yet happened is that Africans need to be the center of the tech scene, instead of the mass of American and European techies who currently occupy things. You’ll find most American techies will tout how much they believe this too, but it’s a lot like asking someone if they believe we should eliminate poverty. Nearly all will give the obvious resounding answer, “Yes, of course!” But few will actually take a proactive approach and live this out. Anyone involved in international development will know this is true.

This is also true of the African tech scene. More work needs to be done to make Africans the center of their own world. African’s shouldn’t take outside techies at their word, but judge by what work they are doing to be more inclusive. That’s the key word here: inclusive. There needs to be a clear sign and pathway to empowerment. Many will argue with me and say there is plenty of evidence to show this is happening. But I will say it again, there are some extremely huge ego’s in the African tech scene and this needs to change. Africans need to stop looking for a leader and lead themselves. Otherwise, there are plenty of American techies to stand up to be the leaders when they shouldn’t necessarily be in the limelight.

When we begin to see the majority of breakthroughs coming from Africans instead, and outside techies fighting them for camera and conference time, then this is when the true technological shift will happen. There needs to be more efforts to bridge this divide.

As for me, I’m taking a “breather” and focusing on my own personal development, which has been graduate school and learning everything I can about educational technology. Africa will still be there when I’m done.