Maker Faire Africa and The Power of Tinkering

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-09-29 01:23:00 UTC
Topics:

In a summer filled with travel for Malawian windmill maker William Kamkwamba, one of the most important journeys was to Maker Faire Africa, an event for African tinkerers held in Accra, Ghana in August.

The Maker Faire Africa came after an off-handed comment by co-founder Emeka Okafor, in which he suggested that while ICT was starting to penetrate the continent, there had yet to be a real sense of a "Maker Philosophy," and a spirit of tinkering, trying that characterized the gadgetry on the continent.
From all reports, the event was a smashing success. The Maker Faire blog has a number of great posts about it, from which it's clear that the theme was not gadgets or African IT, but simply the spirit of creative entrepreneurship and engineering that are spread across the continent in droves for those looking.

Maker Faire is not the only event to celebrate this spirit. Barcamp Africa is an increasingly important part of the fabric of web and nonprofit collaboration both on the continent and beyond. The second Barcamp Africa to be held in Silicon Valley will be happening in less than a month.

Beyond events, groups like Maneno, Ushahidi, Appfrica Labs and others are providing new platforms to help communities form. This year's Maker Faire was kicked off with a speech from William, which seems appropriate. His message, and the message of the event, was that the spirit of tinkering - of trying, failing, and trying again - matters deeply, and with a little bit of luck, can lead to magic.

(Photo: Erik Hersman)

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
PREVIOUS STORY:
(A Change In) How To Write About Africa?
NEXT STORY:
Facing Forward: The End of the Social Entrepreneurship Blog on Change.org

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.