The Bright Continent

A Nigerian-American journalist attempts to dispel the warring, impoverished and pitiful images of Africa so prevalent in the media with the joyful and innovative country she knows by highlighting the commercial opportunities and technological innovations to be found there. 25,000 first printing.

“For anyone who wants to understand how the African economy really works, The Bright Continent is 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 by kanju—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 conventional wisdom, The Bright Continent rewrites 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 hopeful narrative about a continent on the rise.” —The New York Times Book Review

The Next Africa, an Axiom Best Business Book Award winner, will change the way people think about the continent. The old narrative of an Africa disconnected from the global economy, depicted by conflict or corruption, and heavily dependent on outside donors is fading. A wave of transformation driven by business, modernization, and a new cadre of remarkably talented Africans is thrusting the continent from the world's margins to the global mainstream. In the coming decades the magnitude of Africa's markets and rising influence of its people will intersect with other key trends to shape a new era, one in which Africa's progress finally overshadows its challenges, transforming an emerging continent into a global powerhouse. The Next Africa captures this story. Authors Jake Bright and Aubrey Hruby pair their collective decades of Africa experience with several years of direct research and interviews. Packed with profiles; personal stories, research and analysis, The Next Africa is a paradigm-shifting guide to the events, trends, and people reshaping Africa's relationship to the world. Bright and Hruby detail the cross-cutting trends prompting Silicon Valley venture capital funds and firms like GE, IBM, and Proctor & Gamble to make major investments in African economies, while describing how Africans are stimulating Milan runways, Hollywood studios, and London pop charts. The Next Africa introduces readers to the continent's burgeoning technology movement, rising entrepreneurs, groundbreaking philanthropists, and cultural innovators making an impact in music, fashion, and film. Bright and Hruby also connect Africa's transformation to its contemporary immigrant diaspora, illustrating how this increasingly affluent group will serve as the thread that pulls the continent's success together. Finally, The Next Africa suggests a fresh framework for global citizens, public policy-makers, and CEOs to approach Africa. It will no longer be "The Hopeless Continent", nor will it become an overnight utopia. Bright and Hruby offer a more nuanced, net-sum, and data-rich approach to analyzing an increasingly complex continent, reconciling its continued challenges with rapid progress. The Next Africa describes a future of a more globally-connected Africa where its leaders and citizens wield significant economic, cultural, and political power--a future in which Americans will be more likely to own African stocks, work for companies doing business in Africa, buy African hits from iTunes, see Nigerian actors win Oscars, and learn new African names connected to tech moguls and billionaires.

Definitive proof that Africa is *not* a country. A lively, entertaining and informative portrait of modern Africa that pushes back against harmful stereotypes. Over a billion people have been reduced to one simple story. Africa Is Not a Country fills in the gaps. So often Africa is depicted simplistically as a red landscape of safaris and famines. In this funny, insightful book Dipo Faloyin corrects this view to create a fresh and positive view of the continent. By turns intimate and political, he looks at buzzy urban life in Lagos and the lively West African rivalry over who makes the best jollof rice, before giving us the story of democracy in seven dictatorships, an insight into different regional accents and the colonial foundation of many countries which are still younger than your grandparents. We learn about the dangers of white saviours and the cultural significance of Aunties, and he provides us with a tour guide of where citizens of several African countries need to travel to visit their own cultural artefacts - 90% of which are in museums outside the continent. We immerse ourselves in the energy and fabric of many different cultures and communities as Dipo shows his deep love of the region - as a concept, as a promise and as a reality.

In an era of slowing growth, Africa is home to a trillion-dollar, resource-rich economy, and six of the ten fastest growing markets in the world. Success in Africa introduces the ambitious CEOs who are building the continent. These stories of growth, technology, and tradition bring life to one of the most important stories of the global economy: a successful Africa. The CEOs of General Electric, The Coca Cola Company, and Tullow Oil join Africa's leading CEOs to share insights on what wins in this fast-growth market. With twenty years of experience in frontier markets, including a decade working in Africa, author Jonathan Berman engages with top business leaders on the vast opportunities and challenges of the continent. Success in Africa pushes past the headlines on Africa's growth to answer the questions often asked by companies and investors: Who do I work with there and what drives them? How do I deal with government? What about war, disease, and poverty? What about China? How do I win? Success in Africa provides on-the-ground perspective, personal stories, and insight that Robert Rubin calls "essential reading for all who are interested in Africa for reasons of business, investment, policy, or curiosity."

In A Continent for the Taking Howard W. French, a veteran correspondent for The New York Times, gives a compelling firsthand account of some of Africa’s most devastating recent history–from the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko, to Charles Taylor’s arrival in Monrovia, to the genocide in Rwanda and the Congo that left millions dead. Blending eyewitness reportage with rich historical insight, French searches deeply into the causes of today’s events, illuminating the debilitating legacy of colonization and the abiding hypocrisy and inhumanity of both Western and African political leaders. While he captures the tragedies that have repeatedly befallen Africa’s peoples, French also opens our eyes to the immense possibility that lies in Africa’s complexity, diversity, and myriad cultural strengths. The culmination of twenty-five years of passionate exploration and understanding, this is a powerful and ultimately hopeful book about a fascinating and misunderstood continent.

A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2022 An exuberant, opinionated, stereotype-busting portrait of contemporary Africa in all its splendid diversity, by one of its leading new writers.

Audisee® eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and sentence highlighting for an engaging read aloud experience! Enter into the daily lives of children in the many countries of modern Africa. Countering stereotypes, Africa Is Not a Country celebrates the extraordinary diversity of this vibrant continent. This edition includes updates to the text, statistics, and illustrations to reflect Africa in the 2020s. “A lovely book about Africa that gets the issue of its enormous diversity right.” —Barbara Brown, Director, Africa in our Schools and Community Program, African Studies Center, Boston University “A book every school must have as we emerge into the global village. Gives good insights into Africa’s many cultures, with a balance of the contemporary and traditional that is the way of life now.” —Oscar Mokeme, Director, Museum of African Tribal Art, Portland, Maine