Maker Faire Africa Concept
Flying out to MakerFaire in SF tomorrow and continue to be psyched, especially since they are focusing on renewable/sustainable America. But there’s a group trying create a Maker Faire in Africa — even more focused on social consequences and improvements from tinkering/making/experimenting ethos:
When discussions of wealth creation and poverty reduction are made in reference to the continent, for a variety of reasons manufacturing is left off the table. This is partly the fault of education and or orientation. Making fabrication the next “big thing” in a sense could go some way in changing these attitudes. Manufacture – literally, fabrication by hand – is exciting, and exists across the continent of Africa, and is abundant – from centers sited at dumps, where scrap metals are abundant, to more formal collections of mechanics and repairers who have set up shop in the urban core. Much of this curiosity, talent, and entrepreneurial spirit in manufacturing remains trapped in the informal sectors - bricoleurs and tinkerers who ingeniously meet hyper local demands and tend not to scale.