Dear colleagues and friends,
Happy Easter to those of you celebrating.
Spring has sprung in the Western hemisphere. Covid vaccines are rolling out smoothly in the US and UK, and painstakingly slowly in Europe. In Africa, meanwhile, many people remain wary, so much so that health officials fear that valuable doses will expire before they can be administered because of the lack of demand. The grim history of medical experimentation on the continent has, of course, a lot to do with it.
In other news, actress Thandie Newton has just announced that she is reverting to the original Zimbabwean spelling of her first name, Thandiwe. In her announcement Newton explained that her name was misspelled in the credits to her first film, Flirting, back in 1991. She had been stuck with the mistake ever since. This missing “w” is not a detail, and the fact that, 20 years later, Newton finally feels able to reclaim her real name is a testament to the recent progress made in the global understanding and acceptance of African cultures.
This week in HUSTLE & FLOW, I’ll talk about three major African Empires of the past, present and future: the mythical Pharaohs of Egypt, West African fighters’ coronation as absolute rulers of the UFC kingdom, and Airtel Money, the new double unicorn of the world’s most dynamic mobile money market. Read on as well for some juicy bits on an African superfood with as much protein as steak, the origin story of Afrobeats, Multichoice’s stealth global expansion, and the social media content revolution you’re not seeing coming.
As always, head over to www.restless.global/hustleflow to subscribe or catch up on previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW.
On Wednesday April 14 at 4pm GMT, I will be speaking at Digital MIPTV about “TV Drama’s Last Frontier: Producing in and with Africa”. If you plan on attending MIPTV and are curious about the African content market, this is your chance to ask all your questions. It would be a pleasure to see you there.
Happy reading,
Marie
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
The data center race continues unabated. Pan-African data centre developer Raxio and asset manager Meridiam have announced a $48 million partnership to deploy a network of data centres across the African continent, in countries where both Raxio and Meridiam already have strong local presence. Raxio is currently developing or operating 3 facilities in Uganda, Ethiopia, and DRC.
DRC is also where the entity formerly known as Liquid Telecom - and recently rebranded as Liquid Intelligent Technologies - is planning to deploy a new 4,000km optical fibre network, after completing the construction of a 2,500km stretch in the western part of the country. Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a subsidiary of Zimbabwean tycoon Strive Masiyiwa’s Econet Wireless Group, recently added IT and cybersecurity to its core business of telecommunications.
MOBILE
Global payments giant Mastercard has invested $100 million in Airtel Mobile Commerce, the holding company for the Airtel Money brand which operates in 13 countries in Africa. The transaction, which comes on the heels of a $200 million investment in the company by TPG’s Rise Fund just two weeks ago, values Airtel Mobile Commerce at a whopping $2.65 billion -- a bright neon sign of the current optimism in Africa’s digital payment sector. Airtel Africa is now exploring listing Airtel Mobile Commerce within 4 years. You can bet that we will see other major African telcos spin off their mobile money platforms in the coming years as a way to accelerate growth in a hot hot hot market.
Meanwhile in Kenya, Safaricom has launched the country’s first commercial 5G services in partnership with Nokia and Huawei. The rollout began in the capital Nairobi and will expand to other areas considered to have high data consumption. According to GSMA Intelligence, commercial 5G services will be operational in at least 7 sub-Saharan African markets by 2025, reaching 28 million or 3% of total mobile connections. Vodacom was the first operator to launch 5G on the continent with a move in Lesotho in 2018, followed by South Africa in May 2020.
LITERATURE
Kenyan literary icon Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o has become the first writer to be nominated for the International Booker prize as both author and translator of the same book for his latest novel The Perfect Nine, and also the first nominee writing in an indigenous African language. The 83-year-old perennially-frustrated Nobel favourite is among 13 authors nominated for the award, a £50,000 prize split evenly between author and translator. The Perfect Nine is a novel-in-verse originally written in Gikuyu, which was described by the judges as “a magisterial and poetic tale about women’s place in a society of gods”.
Other African writers are gaining international recognition this Spring. Ghanaian-American writer Yaa Gyasi is the only African-born author named in the Women's Prize 2021 longlist for her sophomore novel Transcendent Kingdom. Gyasi released Transcendent Kingdom in 2020 following her award-winning 2016 debut Homegoing which sold for over $1 million. On the Francophone side, Cameroonian writer Djaïli Amadou Amal has won the Goncourt des lycéens (High Schoolers’ Goncourt) for her latest novel Les Impatientes. Amal had previously been among the 4 finalists for the 2020 Goncourt Prize, France’s most prestigious literature prize.
HERITAGE
This is, without contest, the video of the week: in a historic procession through the streets of Cairo dubbed The Pharaohs' Golden Parade, 22 Egyptian mummies - 18 kings and four queens - were relocated last weekend to their new resting place at the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. Each mummy was placed in a special nitrogen-filled box and carried on a decorated vehicle fitted with special shock-absorbers, surrounded by a motorcade. Egyptian authorities are hoping that the new museum, which opens fully this month, will help revitalize tourism after the disaster that was 2020. Unless… the “Curse of the Pharaohs”, a 100-year-old myth that alleges that a curse would be cast upon anyone who disturbs the mummy of an ancient Egyptian, is what got us all there in the first place.
In a landmark move for a British institution, the University of Aberdeen has confirmed that it would repatriate one of the disputed Benin bronzes -- looted by the British forces in Nigeria in 1897 -- “within weeks”. Historically, much of the focus of the debate around the return of looted African art in the UK has been on the British Museum, which has the largest collection of bronzes in the world. But the British Museum and other national institutions are currently prevented from permanently returning items by the British Museum Act 1963 and the Heritage Act 1983. Museums that sit outside the national portfolios, however, can in theory return bronzes more easily, which means that Aberdeen’s initiative could potentially encourage other regional institutions to do the same.
GASTRONOMY
The global commercial potential of African superfoods is one in which I believe strongly. Although the field is almost totally green (pun intended), a few chefs, nutritionists and scientists from the diaspora have started to explore traditional ingredients such as fonio, plantain, manioc and sweet potato flour, which are gluten-free and much easier to digest. Bouye juice, or ‘monkey wine’, which is made from the fruit of the baobab tree, is a source of fiber and antioxidants, very rich in calcium, vitamin C and potassium. But even more impressive is moringa, nicknamed the ‘tree of life’, which contains as much protein as a beef steak, four times more vitamin A than a carrot, as much magnesium as dark chocolate, and 25 times more iron than spinach. The next Kombucha could very well come from Africa.
FASHION
Women-led Kenyan design house Pine Kazi, which converts pineapple leaf and recycled rubber into fashionable footwear, has won the $2,000 Fashionomics Africa competition cash prize. The brand, co-founded by Olivia Okinyi, Angela Musyoka and Mike Langa, will also have access to media opportunities and receive mentoring and networking opportunities from competition collaborators.
MUSIC
The origins story of Afrobeats is finally being told. Last weekend, the highly-anticipated documentary Afrobeats: The Backstory was released in theaters in Nigeria, and it’s only a matter of time before it comes to a streaming service near you. The 9-episode series was produced by Ayo Shonaiya and supported by Boomplay, in what is - as far as I can tell - the music streaming giant’s first move into video production. The documentary will no doubt explain the complex filiation between modern, popular Afrobeats and Afrobeat without an s, the innovative genre pioneered by Fela Kuti in the 1970s. Talking about Fela, his son Seun Kuti, a talented musician in his own right, has recently signed with the California-based record label Knitting Factory Entertainment, also responsible for the promotion of the older Kuti’s catalogue.
Finally, music distributor ONErpm has expanded its operations into Nigeria and named Osagie Osarenz as Country Manager. ONErpm operates in more than 20 territories globally, supporting over 600,000 artists, music labels and video creators worldwide and managing more than 8,000 YouTube channels that collectively generate over 9 billion views a month. Its roster in Africa already includes heavyweights such as Flavour, Laycon, Reminisce, and YCee.
SPORTS BUSINESS
Another African Empire in the spotlight this week is the one West African fighters have carved for themselves at the very top of global Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). A week ago, the Cameroonian Francis Ngannou became the new heavyweight UFC champion, joining Nigerian middleweight and welterweight titleholders Israel Adesanya and Kamaru Usman on the top of the league’s podium. Ngannou’s rags to riches life story, which took him from the sand mines of Cameroon, through Spanish jails and the streets of Paris, to becoming the most powerful heavyweight potentially ever seen in the UFC, is now hot property in Hollywood.
The Basketball Africa League’s historic inaugural season will tip off on May 16 at the Kigali Arena in Rwanda, with the finals taking place on May 30. The BAL, a partnership between the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) marks the NBA’s first collaboration to operate a league outside of North America. The competition will pit against each other champion teams from 12 national leagues (Angola, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Cameroon, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique and Rwanda).
BROADCAST
The head-splitting headache that is the Nigerian broadcast sector may be getting even more convoluted. The Minister of Information and Culture recently shared the federal government’s plan to impose a fine for local brand adverts that run on CNN and other international stations in Nigeria, as well as during foreign matches. You may remember that Nigerian broadcasters purchasing rights to foreign league matches are also now required to invest an amount equivalent to 30% of that fee into local football. The measures are aimed to, in a roundabout way, fight against what the government deems unfair competition from foreign companies such as Multichoice. In the same breath, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has announced that the cost for a 5-year "Free View National Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting Licence" would now be... $700,000. License holders will also be expected to pay 2.5% of their annual earnings to the NBC. Any connection between the struggles of local broadcast operators and the government’s appetite for overregulation and overtaxation is purely coincidental.
Meanwhile Malawi has joined the very small club of the 8 African countries that have now successfully migrated from analogue to digital broadcasting. The digital platform will allow more than 20 broadcasters to operate on one frequency. However, the question is how many TV channels will be able to survive in such a small market where the advertiser pool is limited.
VOD
Multichoice is accelerating the pace of its - still discreet - international expansion, faced with increased competition from Netflix and other global platforms. VOD service Showmax has announced that it would be making its Nigerian catalogue available for Nigerians living abroad, including top TV shows such as I AM LAYCON starring Big Brother Naija's winner Laycon Agbeleshe, several popular Africa Magic TV series, and the upcoming Nigerian Idol Season 6. After decades spent sitting jealousy on its catalog, Multichoice has also tapped UK-based distributor Fugitive as exclusive global distributor for its original scripted series. Fugitive is currently shopping 3 series (crime drama Lioness, psychological thriller Dam, and telenovela Legacy), with a further 9 to be made available in the 2021-22 financial year. Fugitive will also help MultiChoice secure future coproductions and pre-sales from the international market for titles on its originals slate.
South African Tourism has partnered with Netflix to explore projects that have the potential to drive international visitors to South Africa. The partnership aims to promote the must-visit sights through locally produced series. Not officially part of this new initiative but standing nonetheless as a great advertising for the artsy-hipster side of Johannesburg is Netflix’s upcoming sequel to the 2016 hit movie Happiness is a Four-Letter Word. The original movie, based on Nozizwe Cynthia Jele' novel, told the story of three friends trying to find happiness while maintaining images of success and acceptability in South Africa. The sequel will be called Happiness Ever After and be set 5 years after the first film.
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Applications are now open for the6th edition of the Ouaga Film Lab. As Francophone Africa’s leading project development and co-production lab, the Ouaga Film Lab’s main goal is to strengthen the competitiveness of directors and producers and to facilitate their access to local and international funding, co-producers and mentors.
The Write Project has announced its list of finalistsfrom the first cycle of applications from around Africa to The Write Project Film Fund, which received over 900 submissions. The Write Project is backed by media finance company PSP Media Capital, which provides investment funds for independent productions, with a focus on projects with global streaming appeal. The Write Project has greenlit 17 short and feature films, documentary and TV projects from across Africa for financing, including 2 features with budgets of close to $2.5 million each.
Another funding opportunity is thenew Francophonie Fund TV5MONDEplus, launched by the International Francophonie Organization (OIF) and French channel TV5Monde with the support of Canada. The new fund is aimed at producers of films or series from 37 French-speaking countries, whose content will be broadcast on the new global TV5MONDEplus platform. The new fund will initially be endowed with about $350,000 for its first year and can be combined with the Image de la Francophonie Fund, the historic financing tool of the OIF.
Staying in Francophone Africa, the non-profit association Vegon co-founded by producer Angela Aquereburu has launched acrowdfunding campaign to finance a Togolese web series projectshot in the local mina language.
DIGITAL MEDIA
Former CNN anchor Isha Sesay has been tapped asnew CEO of digital media company OkayMedia. More specifically, Sesay will oversee Okayplayer, the progressive music site founded by The Roots frontman Amir “Questlove” Thompson in 1999, and OkayAfrica, a website dedicated to African culture, music and politics. She has also been named co-founder and CEO of OkayMedia’s new production arm, SPKN/WRD, which will bring “seldom-heard global voices and fresh perspectives to the forefront” across feature films, documentaries, TV, podcasting and publishing. You may recall that Abiola Oke, the previous CEO of OkayMedia, was forced to resign last yearafter employees accused him of toxic and abusive behavior.
ANIMATION
Last year was supposed to be a big year for African animation: the continent had been selected as spotlight territory for the 2020 edition of the prestigious Annecy International Animation Festival, and a full-on celebration was in the works. But then of course the pandemic happened and the highly-anticipated showcase was postponed indefinitely. This year, the festival will take place once again in digital form and the 2021 official selection includes several African projects, hand-picked out of 2,700 submissions coming from almost 100 different countries. Among those,Twende: the Pole Pole Pangolinwas initially pitched by Apes in Space’s Kwame Nyong’o (yes, from THAT Nyong’o family) in 2019, and was later developed with director Mike Scott as a South Africa-Kenya-US-UK co-production. Another Apes in Space project,The Wonderful Story of Aisha, Ali and Flipflopi the Multicoloured Dhow Boat, as well as theFrench-IvorianKenda: The Ideal Candidate, have also been selected in the Young Audience short films section.
SOCIAL MEDIA
TikTok is launching an incubator project for Black South African creatorsin partnership with the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF). The program, dubbed Rising Voices, will introduce 100 creators to the digital skills required to turn their content into a viable career over the course of 6 weeks. After the program, 20 selected creators will receive a grant and be commissioned to create a series of paid content. Applications are open until April 9.
Facebook is set to expand its new ticketed live streaming platform to South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco. The platform, which was initially launched in August 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and allows creators to charge for live events such as virtual tours, private concerts and live podcasts, is operational in 24 countries worldwide. Facebook is also testing additional ways to monetize content, such as introducing in-stream ads for Live and fan subscriptions. The power vested in social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Tik Tok to boost the development of a self-sufficient creator class across the continent is immense.