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.
About the Author
Dayo Olopade is a Nigerian-American journalist covering global politics and development policy. Dayo has been a correspondent in Washington and in Nairobi, reporting for publications including The Atlantic, the Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, the New Republic, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. She holds BA, JD, and MBA degrees from Yale University, and currently lives in New York.
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