Africa by the Numbers:
11,725,923 square miles make Africa the second largest land mass on Earth. Source: White Clouds.com
15.6 babies are born per minute in Africa. Source: Skyways Magazine.
60% of Africa’s population is under the age of 25. Africa has the youngest population globally. Source: The World Economic Forum
19 is Africa’s median age in years. Africa's population is projected to continue growing, with a significant portion remaining young. Source: The World Economic Forum
20 is the number of African billionaires that make up a Combined Net Worth of $82.4 billion. Source: Forbes
10 of the fastest growing cities in the world are in Africa. Source: The Brookings Institute
8 cities in Africa are expected to more than double in population size in the next 17 years. In fact, most of these large African cities are growing faster than all other big cities in the world. Source: The Brookings Institute.
39 is the rank of Africa’s largest economy, South Africa with 380.7 Billion U.S. GDP at a .7% growth rate. Source: World Bank.
$300.2 billion South Africa's national government debt in USD (December 2024), with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 75.1% in September 2024. Source: CEIC data.
$35.46 trillion is the total US federal government debt; The U.S. Current Debt-to-GDP Ratio: The U.S. national debt, as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reached 123.26% in December 2024. Source: fiscaldata.treasury.gov
12% is the amount of Africa’s private and public external debt held by Chinese lenders, which increased more than fivefold to $696 billion from 2000 to 2020. Source: Chatham House
$24 Trillion current estimate of DR Congo's untapped mineral deposits.
3,500 babies delivered per year at the DR Congo’s Panzi hospital (Specifically for treating women impacted and abused by war) with a 99.1% live-birth rate
64% of Black South Africans are living in poverty, while 1% of white South Africans experience poverty, Source: South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).
17.9% of Black people in the United States lived below the poverty line, compared to 7.7% of White people. Source: Statista (2023)
Has Africa Spoken to You Yet?
On a recent trip to Africa, my wife and I met with a Black American ex-pat who builds global blockchain solutions in Johannesburg. He started the convo with a question, "Has Africa spoken to you yet?" We were eating Boma style, an African dinner of grilled exotic meats from ostrich to wildebeest. And no, the ostrich does not taste like chicken. It tastes better than chicken.
My initial reaction to his question was, “Of course, Africa has been speaking to me for years”. Honestly, Africa has always spoken to me like sweet whispers, only now those whispers have turned into louder decibels of exultation. From watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom's Marlin Perkins chasing animals across the Serengeti as a child to visiting the Mother Continent as an adult, Africa has always been in my dreams, head, and ears.
In modern media, Africa is sometimes treated as the last frontier even though it was archaeologically proven to be the first frontier. Africa has been speaking to us for centuries.
The Golden Rhino
Between 1932 and 1934 archaeologists from the University of Pretoria were digging up a Mapungubwe Hill South African royal grave and discovered a pivotal artifact. The Golden Rhinoceros of Mapungubwe is a gold-plated palm-size Rhino figurine believed to have been created sometime between 1075 and 1220, pre-dating the Europeans' arrival in southern Africa. This artifact signified the discovery and existence of a ruling elite as part of a complex class-based society.
Following its 1930s discovery, the Golden Rhinoceros of Mapungubwe was hidden and suppressed from the world…until after Apartheid as it disputed the key pillars and foundation of Apartheid, the belief that the first Europeans to arrive in South Africa were the first.
The Golden Rhinoceros of Mapungubwe was designated by the Post-Apartheid African National Congress government a National Treasure in 1999.
Similarly, at the excavations of the Great Zimbabwe site in southern Zimbabwe, archaeologists discovered fragments of Chinese pottery, proving Africans were trading with Asia centuries before the Europeans arrived.
“America's weapon was a blue note in a minor key”
On our fifteen-hour flight to Johannesburg, I settled in and watched the 2024 ninety-seven percent Rotten Tomatoes/ninety-one Metacritic rated docu-film, “Soundtrack to a Coup d’ Etat”. “Soundtrack”, chronicles the groundbreaking events surrounding the independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1960 and how along with sixteen newly independent African countries they were admitted to the United Nations thus creating a globally influencing African voting block. To their detriment, the joy of independence did not last long.
Central to “Soundtrack” is the United States and other Western powers' covert activities to undermine the newly independent DRC including the murder of its first prime minister Patrice Lumumba.
According to the documentary, the DRC was the source of the United States nuclear program's uranium, including that used in the creation of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. Thus the DRC was very important to the United States government.
The association of the “soundtrack” in the title of the film relates to how the United States government recruited American Jazz artist Louis Armstrong to unknowingly act as a front for their covert actions. Following Lumumba’s murder Jazz Artists Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crashed the UN Security Council meeting in protest of its involvement in suppressing the DRC independence.
The “Soundtrack to a Coup d’ Etat” is a dichotomy of Africa speaking to us all.
All is not dire for Africa. Despite all of the continent's challenges and headwinds, its people remain resilient, strong, resourceful, and innovative.
Africa Speaks Volumes
Africa’s brands speak volumes. Creative advertising in Africa is an extension of the deeply rooted creativity of Africans, from its massive vertical digital ads on urban buildings and in airport rotundas to innovative wrap-around digital placements in shopping malls and urban spaces. It's not just the advanced tech, it's what goes into the ads themselves that shine so much of the African ingenuity.
From South African Surfing brand, Mami Wata’s internationally best-selling “Afro Surf” book to Nigerian automobile brand Innoson to the ubiquitous Simba salty snacks (now Pepsico-owned) Africa’s brands have endured and continue to prosper.
Mami Wata’s “Afro Surf” coffee table book with the aid of University of California professor Kevin Dawson, re-wrote the history of surfing to include documented Europeans' first sightings of Africans surfing in the 17th century, hundreds of years before American surfers Bruce Brown, Robert August, and Mike Hynson so-called “introduced” surfing to Africans in the cult classic surfer documentary, “The Endless Summer”. The rub: the early Europeans mistook the African's abilities to surf as simply learning to swim.
The Mother of Brands
The Mother Continent has been the genesis of brands from the earliest Egyptian hieroglyphics to the even earlier Cradle of Humankind cave drawings near Johannesburg, South Africa. Branding got its ultimate start as our earliest ancestors transitioned from hunter-gatherers to agrarian farmers and ranchers as they began "branding" their cattle and livestock as a means to distinguish their herds.
Africa speaks, but is anyone listening? From misguided UN interventions (see “Soundtrack to a Coup d’ Etat”) to its shaking off centuries-old colonialism, Africa swoons under the burdens of a complex history. Africa has been speaking volumes for centuries from its talking drums to its archaeological sites.
We just need to listen and pay more attention to what the continent is saying. There is so much to learn in a continent so rich in history and diversity.
Like the Great Zimbabwe ruins, the Nubian Pyramids, and the Golden Rhino of Mapungubwe, Africa will persevere and outlast eternity. Africa can and will continue to write its future, especially as outside interference from countries and entities seeking to exploit its people and resources ceases.
So ask yourself: has Africa spoken to you yet?