The Bright Continent: Not Your Mama's Africa

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We used to have a “first” and “third world.” Political correctness brought us “global north” and “global south,” “developed” and “developing.” The Bright Continent introduces “fat” and “lean.” While wealthy economies like the US and EU bounce between bloat and austerity, lean economies in Africa long ago figured out how to do more with less. The cradle of civilization, it turns out, is an innovation factory. The evidence is mounting: Africa pioneered the biggest and best mobile banking services—turning cell phones into ATMs. Africa leads the global race to sell clean energy. Africa has rewritten the education playbook. Africa is building its own healthcare systems, movie industries, and affordable housing. The region hosts 7 of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world, and it’s the youngest by far. Reading from her reporting across sub-Saharan Africa, the author will distill the ingredients of lean innovation, and explain how they apply to anyone trying to shape the 21st century.

Presenters

Dayo Olopade

Journalist

The Bright Continent

Dayo Olopade is a Nigerian-American journalist.

She began her career at The New Republic, where she covered the 2008 presidential primaries and general election. She covered the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency as Washington correspondent for The Root, and the second year as a reporter for The Daily Beast. She has been a Fellow at the New America Foundation, a United Nations Foundation Journalism Fellow, and a visiting scholar with the Rockefeller Foundation. Her work has also appeared in print and online at The American Prospect, The Atlantic, Democracy, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, The Nation, The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Born and raised in Chicago, Dayo holds degrees in Literature and in African Studies from Yale University, where she is currently a Knight Law and Media Scholar.