87: Kwame Senou: Reclaiming and redefining the Africa narrative

Shownotes: 👉🏾 How many of you know that Africa is home to approximately one third of the world’s languages? 👉🏾 That there are at least 75 languages in Africa which have more than one million speakers👉🏾 That it has a combined landmass of China, US, India, Japan and much of Europe (11.7 million sq mi)? 👉🏾 Considering its size, demographic dividend, economic potential, achievements , we know that it does not have the voice or representation that it deserves on all matters, including climate change, SDGs or within global media etc. 👉🏾 Through sheer ignorance and stereotyping most of us continue to use Africa synonymously with a country in Africa? It is 54 distinct countries, that are diverse culturally and geographically👉🏾 The reality is that Africa is not a monolith. That even Francophone Africa is not one homogenous group👉🏾 Covid has impacted countries on the continent in different ways. And countries and communities are still trying to figure out what back to normal, or life/work in a post pandemic world would look like👉🏾 One thing is clear - work from home is not necessarily a thingThe unpalatable truth is that perhaps it works for outsiders to continue to perpetuate the narrative on Africa, to undervalue the expertise/skills of professionals from the continent. The expectation remains that outsiders define strategy and locals just implement and experts/consultants, businesses from the continent charge less for work similar to other marketsLast month, I spoke with Kwame Senou, about the need for education and cultural awareness if businesses are to succeed in the African continent. We spoke about his journey, future trends, what brands could do to take advantage of the opportunities in Africa and much more…..Listen here….Memorable passages from the podcast👉🏾Thank you Sudha for inviting me. It's a real pleasure. 👉🏾 I was born in West Africa in Benin Republic right beside Nigeria. And I grew up in a multicultural family where my dad shared some Ghanaian origin with Benin and my mom being from Benin. And I have two brothers and two sisters, so it was quite a big family. I went to public school, I'm always proud to say that because public education is now kind of synonymous of not being a very good quality. But I went to public school and then after doing science in high school I moved to university where I took law degree. 👉🏾 And after a while doing world law, that's where I got hooked into the communication through journalism, initially the university, and then in a private publication. Being always adventurous and curious. I was always interested in discovering, so I started travelling with my parents. We lived in different part of the country. 👉🏾 And what people always realise about Africa is that South, for instance, is coastal, and the north is almost xxxxxx or desertic a bit arid. People speak different languages, so it's a whole difference. And I remember my first trip to the north of the country, it was in a train, and it was a good experience as the train was moving forward, I was learning more about the country I belong to and the people. In most parts of the world, train stations are like shopping malls and you can see different things being sold in each city and how different they were. And how agriculture is a very important part of the daily lives in...