Volume Five: Technology, Science, Innovation

In our call for everyday African leadership stories for this volume, we quoted Chinua Achebe: ‘It is the storyteller, in fact, who makes us what we are, who creates history.’

To this we add, it is the storyteller that creates the future too.

What do you associate with African technology, science, and innovation?

This was a question we asked contributors when they submitted the stories that make up this volume—our fifth in the We Will Lead Africa (WWLA) series, this time showcasing everyday African leadership in the technology, science, and innovation (TSI) spaces.

What they responded with did not surprise us: creativity, reinvention, resilience, sustainability, community, connection, legacy, longevity, opportunity, potential. These words are good descriptors of each voice, each journey, each project, and the impact that we share with the reader here. What may surprise is that these are not stories limited to ideas of technology purely as the shiny, metal kind. These stories showcase science—not limited to a clinical gaze or lab coat—as something of societal, collective importance. The innovators here are those who are community-focused and concerned with social return and impact.

This was precisely our intuition when we launched the call for this volume: that African technologists, scientists, and innovators would have something uniquely African to add to the narrative about what these fields can be. This is no small claim. The ways in which recent centuries have seen Africa and African people, communities, and cultures excluded from technological progress and scientific advances—from the First to the Fourth Industrial Revolution—could have one believe that there is no such thing as African innovation. It is a common narrative, sometimes insidious and sometimes explicit, that progress (especially in the fields of TSI) doesn’t stem from the so-called ‘Dark Continent’. If you have picked up this book, then you likely shake your head at this term. You know that Africa and ingenuity go hand in hand, despite the lack of access and resources. You know that in spite of, or perhaps because of, the many challenges everyday Africans face, they are also adept at hatching extraordinary solutions…

In our call for everyday African leadership stories for this volume, we quoted Chinua Achebe: ‘It is the storyteller, in fact, who makes us what we are, who creates history.’

To this we add, it is the storyteller that creates the future too. The intention behind this volume is to showcase those that bring together vision and action for a prosperous Africa, now and into the future. We hope that these 27 stories and 3 thought pieces inspire more everyday African leaders to take part in shaping the futures we want, need, and deserve.