Yesterday was Africa Day and as I read some posts, I saw cliche pictures of animals and women with pots on heads… but to me, Africa is summarised in the picture of a confident child, this expressing the youth (entrepreneur-driven) dividend and that the narrative of Africa Rising is a reality and not just marketing.
I have lived on the African continent for the past 15 years and have written about a fictional country, Afronia, but which is based around African fact. So, whether Malawi, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, or indeed
any other African country is your home, or you have visited for business or pleasure, or you are simply curious, I hope you can believe in the Afronia Series.
I deliberately use a range of characters so that you, as the reader, can peer into the daily lives, fears, challenges, and opportunities that a president, housewife, militiaman, army colonel, student, journalist, or foreigner, who lives in such a country as Afronia, might think, feel and experience. I tackle social, economic, cultural, religious, and political questions, which many countries on the continent, and indeed globally, are currently grappling with. In doing so, I hope you will understand a little bit more about the curses of corruption and nepotism, a little bit more about how so many have so little, and how when absolute poverty sits side-by-side with a lack of human rights in the shadow of an elite can drive ordinary people, like you, to desperation and drastic acts (Crying For Afronia). I want you to contemplate what forces individuals to flee their motherland and become refugees. How
leaving home is only the first part of a migrant’s story - many facing truly terrifying journeys and then are greeted by indifference at best, and often open hostility once they get to what they hoped would be the land of their dreams (Escape From Afronia).
Why would refugees return to Afronia after such tortuous journeys, what could possibly persuade those who had fled to return to their motherland other than hope. And what would drive an ordinary person, like you, to bear arms against your government and, depending on your perspective, being either a terrorist or a freedom fighter (Dying For Afronia)
And how the African Rising narrative is real as can be seen in the improving levels of healthcare and education, to growing economies on the back of the youth divide
nd and technological revolution. With greater government transparency, less regulation, greater financial inclusion, and an increasingly entrepreneurial mindset, Africa is now where it’s happening even though challenges still abound (Afronia Rising).
I hope you will enjoy the Afronia series and learn a little more about African reality.