In Smartmonkey TV, Russel Southwood writes:
Africa's Creative Cities - Putting creativity and innovation together to change the city itselfAs a regular visitor to tech hubs across the continent, I can't help being struck by the intense energy going into innovation and the often threadbare nature of the African cities it takes place in. Take the tech innovation district in Lagos, Yaba. It's a snarling mess of traffic and decaying buildings.
The tech innovators sometimes have nice spaces but they're behind closed walls. There are very few attractive public spaces to meet, bump into people and have chance encounters. You get the sense that even if you could wave a magic wand and every start-up was a winner, the rotting city and the way people lived in it would remain the same.
So how might this change? Africa needs to take its cities - where innovation and creativity are happening - and use some of this energy to change the city itself. Creative cities are often places that start with a critical mass of creative activity. Internationally, you can say quite easily that places like New York, Los Angeles, London and Paris are powerhouses for the production of content that is sold all over the world.A tipping point for the continent's major urban centers? And a challenge.
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