African Stories
June 12, 2009 at 8:59 am
I’m going to Reboot in a couple of weeks. Last night, I was checking out reboot.dk to see what to expect this year, I landed on Jonathan Marks’ proposal “In Search of African Genius” and got stuck there! It’s a long time since I’ve watched videos from start to finish without scrolling. It’s even longer since I’ve reached a page where I’ve wanted to watch every video posted there (and the related ones on the side!). All credit to Jonathan for the quality of interviews and videos, produced on his travels around the globe working with technologists, management and creatives on the mix of traditional and emerging media.
I’m also attending the Digital Media Forum event at the Kenyan Embassy today. This event is aimed at people with an interest in Africa, doing business in Kenya, and learning about Kenya’s drive into the IT sector. I hope I get a chance to learn more about inspiring people like Salim Amim from A24media.
A24Media (Kenya)
Watch the Jonathan Marks interview Salim Amim.
Salim Amim is based in Nairobi, Kenya. He set up A24Media a few years ago to act as a pan-African source of content for media. Content producers on the ground in Africa supply stories to them. Producers are paid well (60%) and get to keep copyright of their work. Last year about 150 stories were sold yielding €2500 – €3000 per story for the content producers. This money can then be used to buy equipment or to train friends. It’s only the beginning and I think it’s very exciting to think that citizen journalism is being brought to the storytellers of Africa.
Salim’s mission is to ‘build the history of the continent’. He’s doing this by providing distribution of video content, by digitising his father’s archive of images, and by backing up news stories. His father was Mohamed “Mo” Amin, a Kenyan photojournalist noted for his pictures and videotapes of Ethiopian famine. Apart from famine, Mo contributed exclusive photos of the fall of Idi Amin and of Mengistu Haile Mariam, and was author of numerous books, including Journey Through Pakistan, and covered various themes like East African Wildlife and the Uganda Railway. Amin died when his Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 on November 23, 1996 was hijacked and he tried to rally passengers to overpower them.
Human Smuggling Off The Coast of Libya
Mama Mikes (Kenya)
I’m also reminded of Segeni Ng’Ethe of Mamamikes.com who I also met at Reboot last year. His business is about enabling migrants overseas to send remittances home – but they are converted into vouchers for supermarket shopping, school fees, even birthday cakes! Sending cash might fall into the hands of someone who’s fond of the drink, so his business is about getting cash into the hands of those who are doing the caring. I love the concept and looking at the site, it seems they’re thriving! Read blog post with Segeni Ng’Ethe.
I fell in love with Africa when I travelled there in 1997/98. It was this love for the place and the people that gave me such passion for working on The Rose Project website. Today I’m happy to be writing about non-development-aid related stories, positive tales of entrepreneurs going for it. I’m going to keep an eye on Jonathan Marks’ videos – I promise to keep you updated too.
Tags: A24 Media, Africa Video Content, Jonathan Marks, kenya, mamamikes, Reboot 12
