The Bright Continent: Breaking Rules and Making Change in Modern Africa [Paperback]

“A hopeful narrative about a continent on the rise.” —New York Times Book Review

"For anyone who wants to understand how the African economy really works,The Bright Continentis a good place to start."—Reuters

Dayo Olopade knew from personal experience that Western news reports on conflict, disease, and poverty obscure the true story of modern Africa. And so she crossed sub-Saharan Africa to document how ordinary people deal with their daily challenges. She found what cable news ignores: a continent of ambitious reformers and young social entrepreneurs, driven bykanju—creativity born of African difficulty. It’s a trait found in pioneers like Kenneth Nnebue, who turned cheap VHS tapes into the multimillion-dollar film industry Nollywood. Or Ushahidi, a technology collective that crowdsources citizen activism and disaster relief. A shining counterpoint to the conventional wisdom,The Bright Continentrewrites Africa’s challenges as opportunities to innovate, and celebrates a history of doing more with less as a powerful model for the rest of the world.

"[An] upbeat study of development in Africa...The book is written more in wonder at African ingenuity than in anger at foreign incomprehension."—The New Yorker

 

“A corrective to Africa’s image as a dark, hopeless place…A hopeful narrative about a continent on the rise.” —New York Times Book Review
 
“[An] upbeat study of development in Africa…Despite evident exasperation at Western interventions that fail to adapt to local systems, the book is written more in wonder at African ingenuity than in anger at foreign incomprehension.” —The New Yl“W