South Africa

Well here I am back in South Africa after 3 long hard years in Kenya. The internet works, the traffic moves and 1,000 people weren't killed in the last elections with no one being held accountable. Kenya has decided to use their own courts to resolve the 2007 post-election violence; so given how corrupt they are we'll see how well that goes down with the wananchi. 40 million citizens being held prisoner by 400 politicians driving expensive cars.

I just had a very exciting meeting with a youth PR consultant about redoing my 'Fanya Kazi' tv show here for South African youths. It could work here - because almost everything works here - and all my hard work might just pay off. Of the 43 million or so South Africans - 40% or so are under the age of 35 - and I was told the ANC Youth League is incredibly powerful in all aspects of society. I think of young Hector Pieterson whose memorial rings out the beginning of the end of apartheid and again am reminded - it is always the young and ideal amongst us that remain the bravest. I can feel the energy, the pulse, the rhythm of that young life force here just like in Kenya. But this is a society that is moving quickly and is incredibly empowered. So refreshing from Kenya and so much more workable for me as an investor - to actually be able to bring my ideas to fruition because the society is hungry to move forward and grow into what it is capable of.

Finally. A place I can thrive.

Thursday July 16 - The Banana Box

The Banana Box is one of Nairobi's most successful craft stores - full of funky gorgeous gifts or treasures to selfishly keep or give away to share Africa with the world. The shop retails my photo greeting cards well - on the counter beside the cash register. This is a good as it gets when it comes to passive income!

The shop makes me feel good every time I go inside. It represents what I believe is possible for Africa - value added, beautiful and fair. To most people it may look like a bunch of crafts but to me it's a promise for the future we are all working hard to create here. In a nation where every aspect of making a buck is a monumental hurdle to overcome, this little shop is like a museum of talent offering the world Africa's fantastic ingenuity, imagination and flair.

Raw materials, transport, energy, labour, legal affairs, taxes - the systems of trading in Africa are so labourious and complicated that to bring almost anything to market is worthy a nobel peace prize in my mind. A broken axle, a power cut, a death in the family - as a business person you have to be able to improvise and flex on a moment's notice while being gracious, cunning and resolute. There are so many reasons to fall on the floor in a heap and yell, "I can't take this anymore!" But you can't because you have to survive and you have to find a way - to fix the truck, light the room and give the staff an advance to head home to bury their dead.

PHOTO; The Banana Box window in the Sarit Centre - Nairobi

Wednesday July 15 - Mathare North

The Mathare Valley is a gorgeous low valley area on the Southeast edge of Nairobi. It is what I call one of the 'shelves' that reach down into the wild sea of African humanity pushing up against its urban rim; thunderous booms and toxic smells emitted by 3 million people a day. Quietly weaving its way through the Valley floor trickles the Nairobi River oblivious to a mindboggling clash of roads, green spaces and informal settlements commonly known as 'slums'. I hate that word because it degrades these people who live in dignity amidst the failure of a government to deliver respectful planning, services and investment to its civil society. Even the most carefully executed and transparent accounting plan would struggle to match the pace of Africa's urban growth. But mostly the government does nothing and everyone fends for themselves.

I am visiting a school where up to 150 kids from Mathare North come to learn lessons as outlined in the Kenya National Cirriculum. Surrounded by a broken colonial house, laundry lines and feeding babies I happen to hear one a teacher in a classroom say 'these are some of the effects of urbanization'. I spin around to make sure I have heard this properly. The irony that these kids are the recipients of no urban planning whatsoever - yet they sit learning the subject in school - is surprisingly hopeful to me. Maybe one of the kids will be driven to untangle the mess surrounding them. I have just learned that the Nairobi City Council will force tenants off the land who encroach the river closer than 30M to its edge. If the law is enforced, this school is history.

At the back of the property a shamba is growing sukuma wiki so meals can be provided, sometimes. This hearty leafy green is growing from the soil that drinks the brown sludgy River below its banks. Ten kilometres West back into Nairobi's CBD, car mechanics also work on the edge of the River, casting off remains of petro chemicals that feed down through the soil and into the water table.

Both of these groups - the children's school and the car mechanics - are squatting on land that doesn't belong to them. But moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, they are using it to create opportunity because it's the only option they have. Neither group can afford to buy the land and absent owners aren't selling. It's a trap, a cycle, and no one seems to be fixing it.

Photos; Loving Education Centre & School / Urban Planning Class / Sukuma Wiki