Realizing "Africa to the World" Through Brand: Intro
Making "Africa to the World" more real, using Brand as the Vehicle.
The phrase “Africa to the world” and the idea of positive narratives coming out of the Continent (with the Continent in full control of those narratives) has always intrigued me. Honestly, it’s something that I’m deeply invested in. But the question is, what does this idea of “Africa to the world” actually mean? What does it actually look like?
We’ve probably seen the closest realization of this idea at the intersection of commerce and culture, specifically through music. Genres like Afrobeats and Amapiano have made waves far beyond the Continent, while global interest in other cultural exports like film and fashion have grown over the past few years. On top of this, we’re living in a moment where the Continent (+ The Diaspora) have been able to shift and influence global culture once again, only this time more transparently than in the past. But, how does this translate into genuine value capture and genuine economic improvement on ground, especially since we know significant value is being created? How does this not become “Africa for the world”, where the Continent continues to be seen as just a resource for the rest of the world to just consume?
How does this dynamic translate to product and enterprise? I’d argue that including product and enterprise into the conversation of ‘Africa to the World’ will better position the Continent to bring that value back. Thus, how can (cultural) exports be the foundation for the economic development that we can all agree is needed? Given that there aren’t many Africa-based enterprises doing this at scale, with most still in the ‘emerging’ phase in terms of size, enabling entrepreneurship and venture development will play a key role in making this happen. It can’t just be left to transient cultural, consumer, and economic trends alone.
It’s these questions and ideas that form the foundation for both this series, and my thesis work through the MIT IDM program that inspired it. Coming from a background that mixed engineering, business, and design applied to consumer brand via different angles, I was deeply interested at the time of my thesis in exploring how can we get brand (i.e. product + enterprise at the intersection of commerce and culture) to enable this genuine realization of ‘Africa to the World’ to the benefit of Africa. With the thesis done, but the actual job itself not being finished, I want to use this series to make the research and the approach to the ‘how’ more accessible - hopefully spurring conversation, collaboration, and action.
For the sake of not dragging things out, the operating ‘principles’ to realize this idea of ‘Africa to the world’ through brand and enterprise are:
Operating in harmony as an intentional ecosystem, with the entrepreneurs, the value creators, at the center
Creating the space and providing what’s needed for entrepreneurs to build and pull in what they need for the enterprise to thrive
Focusing on sustainable, inclusive growth trajectories that center longevity
This series will walk through the underlying research that inspired these principles, and then demonstrate how these principles are put into practice through the specific question I sought to address with my thesis (inspired by my background and my origin):
How might we enable consumer goods & brand entrepreneurs based in Nigeria in particular to create more value, capture more value, and thrive overall?
While this work was done through this specific lens, these principles are really applicable to any industry and country within the Continent (and beyond). It’s my belief especially that these principles can and should be used to enable value creators at the intersection of commerce and culture, where the Continent has a huge advantage. Again, the purpose of this is to share, hopefully inspire, and drive action - because ‘Africa to World’ doesn’t need to remain just a slogan or a rallying cry. We’ve seen the beginning of it becoming real right before our eyes, and now is the time to keep it going, so that ‘Africa to the World’ doesn’t just actually mean yet another iteration of ‘Africa for the World’.
The Series:
Part 1: A look at broader entrepreneurship development in Nigeria and building the principles from the ground up.
Part 2: Uncovering the needs of consumer goods & brand entrepreneurs through the principles
Outro: Recapping and calling to action.