Space and YouTube
Making the case for investing in Africa
By Rosalind McLymont, April 2020
A recent newsletter from the Africa Scientific Institute, a California-based organization representing a global network of scientists, engineers, technologists, health professionals, mathematicians and the like of African descent, provides a wealth of information on Africa’s space industry. Citing the 2019 edition of African Space Industry Report, the newsletter makes the case for investment and collaboration opportunities in Africa’s space industry as governments embark on ambitious programs and the number of startups skyrockets.
The African Space Industry Report puts the industry’s annual revenue at more than $7 billion, and projects annual growth at a compound rate of 7.3 percent to exceed $10 billion by 2024. Published by Space in Africa, a source of space-related news from Africa, it points to eight African countries (Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa) that sent 32 satellites into orbit between 1998 and May 2019 with functions ranging from Earth observation, communications, technology demonstration, and scientific experimentation to educational and military functions. African institutions jointly funded an additional three satellite projects for regional operations in the same period.
Modern space technologies have the ability to help Africa solve critical problems in agriculture, security, telecommunications and other sectors. Already, some countries have started to benefit. In Mali, satellites are helping nomadic herdsmen find water for their cattle ; in Angola and Rwanda, satellites are used to connect rural classrooms to the Internet and entertain millions with profitable TV programs across Africa.”
Twenty-four-year-old Temidayo Oniosun is Space in Africa’s founder and managing director. “All across Africa, governments are investing in elaborate space programs, revving up the continent’s capacity to see beyond pale clouds and harness the inherent power of space technologies,” he says. “Modern space technologies have the ability to help Africa solve critical problems in agriculture, security, telecommunications and other sectors. Already, some countries have started to benefit. In Mali, satellites are helping nomadic herdsmen find water for their cattle; in Angola and Rwanda, satellites are used to connect rural classrooms to the Internet and entertain millions with profitable TV programs across Africa.”
Oniosun is a pioneer in the space industry. The Mars Generation, a U.S. nonprofit promoting human space exploration and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, named him among its World 24 Under 24 Leaders and Innovators in SPACE and STEAM. BellaNaija, a Nigerian lifestyle, entertainment and fashion website, placed him among its “25 under 25 Nigerians” who are “disrupting entrepreneurship, leadership, governance, and the corporate world.” He is a recipient of the International Institute of Space Commerce’s “35 Under 35” space industry recognition award.
Meanwhile, young African-American YouTubers are making the case for investment in Africa in general. Philadelphia native RJ Mahdi, a business manager, media personality, filmmaker and motivational activist, repatriated to Senegal with his wife in 2014, determined to connect African businesses, institutions and entrepreneurs with the Diaspora. Last December, he and fellow YouTuber Dynast Amir sat down at DREAM American Sports Bar and Lounge in Dakar, Senegal, to discuss Africa Day celebrations in Dakar in May. Amir, formerly Albert Hollis II, a champion high school football running back in his native California, is a pan-Africanist and author who describes himself as “The Curator of Africa.”
The conversation between these two young men took place over “wings and sliders” and was carried live on Mahdi’s YouTube channel, Africa is for Africans. Mahdi envisions Africa Day 2020 in Dakar as “a first of its kind celebration and reunion of African people from all over the world for the purpose of empowering and motivating the next generation and sharing resources for their improved development.” It won’t be just a celebration or a party, he insists. Rather, “it will be a time to get together and actually unite around some issues.”
All across Africa, governments are revving up the continent’s capacity to see beyond pale clouds and harness the inherent power of space technologies.
Africa Day commemorates the founding of the Organization of African Unity (today’s Africa Union) by independent African nations on May 25, 1963. The OAU sought to free other African nations—Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, and Southern Rhodesia—from colonial rule, which is why the day is also celebrated as African Liberation Day. The year 2020 is particularly significant. It falls at the center of the United Nations-declared “International Decade for the People of African Descent,” and follows 2019, which was the 400th anniversary of the first arrival of enslaved Africans in colonial America. A Ghanaian government initiative labeled the “Year of the Return” encouraged Blacks in the Diaspora to visit the continent, specifically Ghana, to mark the occasion. Hundreds did.
Mahdi’s organization, Made In Africa Project, plans week-long festivities in Dakar from May 25 to 31: a concert, parade, panel discussion, fashion competition, education resource fair, family fun, business/entrepreneur and women influencer conferences, and an award ceremony. Fittingly, DREAM, the investment of an African-American expat, will be one of the hottest event venues that week.
