What started as a hobby has become a global 'tour de force' for positioning Africa as a 'can do' continent. One of Time Magazine's 50 best Web sites in the world, Afrigadget is all about invention and speaks to the ways that people who share our continent are finding innovative solutions to the challenges that face them.
There's such a dearth of development stories from Africa, particularly those that speak to innovation, that Afrigadget literally hit the big time overnight.
Mandy de Waal, contributor, ITWeb
Afrigadget started when a couple of African bloggers and Erik Hersman began tossing around the idea of doing a Web site for Africa as a joke. “One Saturday I had time to play and put the site together, then told the other bloggers and it grew from there,” says Hersman, one of the site's founders. Key to Afrigadget's success is that it is tightly focused and speaks to a narrative that is horribly underrepresented in global media. There's such a dearth of development stories from Africa, particularly those that speak to innovation, that Afrigadget literally hit the big time overnight. It's been featured on Wired, BoingBoing, MakeMagazine, Engadget, Gizmodo and more.
“The Time Magazine article gave us tremendous credibility and connections to other groups who wanted to be a part of what we are doing, so we got loads of traction,” says Hersman, who continually stresses that he is just a member of a team who created Afrigadget. A passionate advocator for change brought about by technology, Hersman grew up in Sudan and Kenya, but now lives and works from the US. The other members of the team are Steve Mugiri, who has a strong business management and technology background and has sourced some of the most popular stories on AfriGadget to date; Juliana Chebet, a Kenyan with an engineering degree and a heart for solar power, currently living in Chicago; Juergen Eichholz, a water and sanitation specialist who grew up in Japan, Germany and Kenya; and Paula Kahumbu, a Kenyan ecologist based in Nairobi who runs an Internet company that teaches field-based wildlife conservationists to find their voice through blogs, to raise global awareness and financial support to save Africa's wild species and places.
African revelation
“To be honest, when I started Afrigadget I didn't realise how much stuff was going on around the continent. Finding the interesting stories and the micro-entrepreneurs who make business happen in Africa has been a revelation. Stories like the Malawi micro generators operating on sugar and yeast. I knew there is a lot of re-use of things in Africa, but didn't realise how strongly that played into everything. During a recent trip to Africa, I saw people making paraffin lamps out of old fruit cans. When you really think about it, that's when it becomes interesting. We track back to find out where they got the trash. When I went to the outskirts of Nairobi, I found out there is a whole business around the trash collection and sorting. The paraffin lamp creators buy the raw trash from people who wonder around the street with pushcarts. It is interesting to think about the eco-system that has been grown out of poverty, but doesn't mean it lacks respect or appreciation,” says Hersman.
“We don't monetise Afrigadget. What we are interested in doing is setting up a marketplace, so people featured can reach a broader audience and the funds can be channeled back. We just manage the shipping and marketing. An example of this is a story we featured in June - a guy who built intricate and well-made airplanes and buses out of sheet metal and tin cans. I was contacted by the Artbots.org in Netherlands who wanted to purchase one, which they did for 400 euros - a decent chunk of change for the hobby work. There is interest and we have had a lot of people contacting us for the different people. The focus now is putting together a real marketplace.”
Ingenious ideas
Hersman's favourite story includes one about a man who created a bicycle engine that goes 100km an hour. “When you need it you just kick it on,” says Hersman.
Then there are the guys who create their own tools for small engine repair and are remaking them from recycled materials and whatever they can lay their hands on. “This is ingenious because they are taking the little they have and making something out of it. I was completely floored by the handmade welding machine.”
And then there's a story about a community that diverts rain off the roads. They dig big pits and fill them up with the rainwater as it runs down the road and then stock the 'mini dams' with fresh fish. When the dry season comes, what is left is used for nurseries and edible gardens. “I don't know where they got the idea from, but it's one of the smartest things I've seen,” he says.
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