Tseai Energy's Anaerobic Biodigestor

Tseai Energy covered earlier:

...has designed a system that incorporates patent protected biomass technology that converts agricultural waste to biogas that can be used to produce electricity. During the processing of palm oil, an effluent - liquid waste - is produced and used as the main input to the anaerobic digester. The effluent is co-digested with various items currently being researched in order to maximize biogas production. Materials being researched include animal and human 'manure', palm leaves and shoots, and crop residues. The insertion of the anaerobic digestion process into the TEU model effectively captures the waste from the income generating palm oil production process and uses it as resource for producing methane rich biogas and organic fertilizer.

New Nollywood Soap Operas

via Bombastic Element, Nollywood on Television:

Brooklyn Shakara Trailer from Adam Pray on Vimeo.

Teach Me to Make

"...Teach me to Make provides science workshops and classes for all ages. Our popular electronics and mechanics workshops for children encourage tinkering: taking things apart, building whimsical contraptions using salvaged components, recycled objects and inexpensive supplies, and repurposing contraptions to different needs. Using both an artistic and technical approach, each child is guided and encouraged in the way best suited to their way of thinking..."-website

Meltwater opens an Incubator

Ghtech reports on the opening of Meltwater's incubator:

MEST's First Graduating Class

The incubator is the second stage of Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), a three-phase entrepreneurial program designed to foster the growth of software companies in Africa...the MEST entrepreneurs get seed funding and incorporate their companies. Their main focus in the incubator is partly to develop a commercially viable go-to-market strategy and partly to further develop their prototype, therefore enabling it for a commercial launch. Expected duration of this stage is one to two years.

More here

Scarcity as a driver for innovation

Niti Bhan writes:

Aluminium smelter's workshop, Nairobi, Kenya courtesy of Niti Bahn

Frugality and affordability are very much in the news of late, what with the most recent essay on Change Observer and this post on Paul Polak’s new blog both highlighting similar concepts but from the point of view of very different markets. It seems to imply the trend towards frugal design or extremely affordable yet relevant and useful products is emerging to the forefront of the mainstream, regardless of whether its the sophisticated mainstream consumer culture or the challenging markets of the lower income demographic. In which case, this is a timely moment in which to give a brief introduction to the conditions of scarcity within which we looked at informal manufacture, fabrication and innovation during our recent trip to Kenya and how these conditions drive innovation. Necessity, after all, has always been the mother of invention...[continue reading]

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Brazil/Africa: Chasing Cerrados

In Bombastic Element how "the world’s leading tropical-research institution--turned the cerrado--Brazil's once upon a time nutrient poor back lands--green."the Economist reported:

Embrapa went to Africa and brought back a grass called brachiaria. Patient crossbreeding created a variety, called braquiarinha in Brazil, which produced 20-25 tonnes of grass feed per hectare, many times what the native cerrado grass produces and three times the yield in Africa. That meant parts of the cerrado could be turned into pasture, making possible the enormous expansion of Brazil’s beef herd. Thirty years ago it took Brazil four years to raise a bull for slaughter. Now the average time is 18-20 months.Watch Jose Bellini discuss Brazil-Africa agriculture cooperation below

More here

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• You: Brazilian scientists turning nation into an agro-power (washingtonpost.com)
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KwaNzira Urban Farming

Continuing with our coverage of urban gardening, KwaNzira's:

Urban Farming's mission is to network one thousand quality permaculture demonstration nodes in Southern Africa by 2020. This goal will be achieved by the “Nodes Create Nodes” model where the focus of every node is to facilitate the establishment of ten more permaculture nodes and linking them together. By forming chains of interlinked nodes, very large and complex data structures can be formed in Africa.

the main focus is to facilitate the creation of nodes at the household level. A node is a home of sustainable living. Nodes have many faces and perform many functions. Some nodes may be premier permaculture demonstration models, incorporating a wide variety of sustainable living practices, while other nodes may perform more specific functions. For example, one household may showcase a renewable energy program while another could be a quality water-harvesting model. In this way, different households with different capabilities can work together towards achieving the ultimate goal of building a sustainable community.

Images courtesy of KwaNzira

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Building with Fractals in Africa-XV Studio

Inspired by Ron Eglash's fractal, work XVstudio founded by Xavier Vilalta initiates projects that "integrate traditional climate control systems such as ventilation, humidity and shade while introducing the newest green technologies, they are also engineered to be living buildings."They describe the Melaku center in Ethiopia thus:

A common parameter in the traditional African architecture is the use of the fractal scale: small parts of the structure tend to be similar to the bigger ones, for example, the circular villages are made of circular houses.The project master-plan geometry is based in a fractal hexagonal grid that holds the different sizes of classrooms and services. The classes are organized in small groups of three or four pieces that have the shape of a flower. Understanding the climate and the vernacular architecture of Ethiopia, the exterior spaces become the corridors of the school.

Kanna- A Mood lifting Plant

Physorg reports on an underutilised resource the Kanna plant:

Photo/Nigel Gericke

The plant - known within South Africa as Kanna, Channa or Kougoed - has been used by the San people to reduce hunger, thirst and fatigue and is said to have sedative, hypnotic and mood-elevating effects. It is commonly chewed, but also can be made into tea or smoked...When chewed, the plant gives a slight head rush, which is similar to the effect of smoking a cigarette, Van Wyk (a professor of botany and plant biotechnology at the University of Johannesburg) said."It's a product with huge potential," he said. "Anyone who has chewed it and has experienced the sensation of the plant definitely knows there's something happening.""So often traditional remedies are looked down upon as old-fashioned and outdated," Van Wyk added. "If this product becomes a huge success, the culture will become more respected and better known.

More here

Chams an Electronic Card company

via Balancing Act, Chams:

...conceptualized and set up what is today known as Valucard and claims to be the first local company to offer card technology service in Nigeria.Chams issued the first successful sets of national ID card in Nigeria, designed and built the biggest and most modern card personalisation plant in the world located in Abuja, Nigeria. It also produced 52 million cards in eight weeks for a national project (INEC) first of its kind anywhere in the world

More here

The Extraordinary Makers of Maroua

From 27 months the "Makers of Maroua":

On the outskirts of Maroua, the capital of the Extreme North of Cameroon, is a place quite unlike any other in the country. Here a community of les forgerons—blacksmiths, or metalworkers—practice their craft in the relative cool of a tree grove. Several dozen men with specialized skills are gathered here for a single purpose: to transform piles of scrap iron into finely finished tools, stoves, replacement parts and other useful implements for sale to the local population. Young apprentices learn the craft while operating bellows or shaping wood for tool handles. The production here is performed entirely by hand and on a scale which must be seen to be fully appreciated. Watch related video:

More here

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• Recruiting In An Emerging Age Of Makers (chrisgammell.com)

Quick Hits

Leading pharmaceutical manufacturer Pokupharma
The "very friendly "Angeles hotel Abuja
Getachus one of Nigeria's leading VSAT companies.
Kenya's own Skunkworks, for more background go here.
Informal skills to earn a living-It takes A Village

Urban Indigenous Architecture

From CurryStone Design prize, one of their winners - MMA Architects:

MMA is pioneering is a new style of architecture that integrates and elevates African-inspired design in both rural and urban settings.Among MMA’s innovations is its ingenious design for low-cost homes commissioned in 2007 by Design Indaba, South Africa’s premier expo for local designers. The project paired 10 local and international architects with 10 families in the township of Freedom Park, a poor shantytown on the outskirts of Cape Town, to build experimental homes on the government subsidy budget of 50,000 South African rand, or $6,900...[continue reading]

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AMN a Co-Working Space in Abidjan

From the Africaincorp folks and MFA09 participant Fred Tape a new hub the AMN Co-Working Space/Lab:

...we are opening up to the local web & creative workforce by enabling a space where independant workers from these two industries could come and work,host potential clients/partners/investors can collaborate,isolate themselves from noise & dust from the city.

Natura Beverage

Founded by Hubert Kepseu "...Natura Beverage specializes in the production and manufacturing of bottled water under the name “Natura mineral water”. The firm started construction and implementation in 2007 and has already established itself as a viable producer and manufacturer. NATURA is located Cameroon and processes a water source right at the foothill of Mount Cameroon..."-TanCon

Building a Yam Gene Bank

Worldchanging reports:

Crop scientists are attempting to collect and catalog more than 3,000 yam samples for international gene banks to preserve the biodiversity of a food crop that is consumed daily by more than 60 million people in Africa alone. Yam varieties collected in West and Central Africa will be sent to the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria, where the samples will be frozen in liquid nitrogen for long-term storage. While many crops can be conserved by drying the seeds, yams must be conserved as vegetative material in tissue culture. A large percentage of important yam varieties are currently preserved only in fields, where they are threatened by disease, pests, natural disaster, and civil conflicts.

More here

Uganda Medicinal Plants Growers

A Project Diaspora initiative the Uganda Medicinal Plants Growers:

...is a large commercial farming initiative based in Masindi, Uganda designed to transform over 1500 susbsistence farmers to commercial farmers. Project UMPG’s goal is to create markets for crops such as moringa, chili peppers, neem and aloe vera. In order to increase farmer daily earnings by broadening their market reach. Project Diaspora role involves crop selection, agricultural training, product development, supply chain management and international marketing.

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U-Street Parking

CIPE profiles the founder of U-Street Parking, Henok Tesfaye:
.

..a young Ethiopian entrepreneur who immigrated to Los Angeles almost two decades ago. Saving a couple hundred dollars a month to pay for business classes, Tesfaye worked as a valet attendant with the hopes of one day owning his own company. Twelve years later, his U Street Parking, named after his first parking lot located in the lively U Street Corridor district of Washington, DC at 12th street NW, informally known as “Little Ethiopia,” is now considered among the biggest and most successful parking lot companies in the DC metropolitan region...[continue reading]

Building Clubhouses that welcome Women to Electronics

via Boing Boing-A recent paper by MIT's Leah Buechley and Benjamin Mako Hill outlines:

...the success of the LilyPad microcontroller in attracting women to electronics projects. LilyPad is derived from the Arduino open processor, but was "specifically designed to be more useful than other microcontroller platforms (like normal Arduino) in the context of crafting practices like textiles or painting." The Buechley/Hill paper shows that this was a successful strategy for engaging women makers and contemplates how to use the LilyPad approach to engage with women and girls in other science/technology/engineering/math (STEM) domains:
Our experience suggests a different approach, one we call Building New Clubhouses. Instead of trying to fit people into existing engineering cultures, it may be more constructive to try to spark and support new cultures, to build new clubhouses. Our experiences have led us to believe that the problem is not so much that communities are prejudiced or exclusive but that they're limited in breadth--both intellectually and culturally. Some of the most revealing research in diversity in STEM found that women and other minorities don't join STEM communities not because they are intimidated or unqualified but rather because they're simply uninterested in these disciplines.

One of our current research goals is thus to question traditional disciplinary boundaries and to expand disciplines to make room for more diverse interests and passions. To show, for example, that it is possible to build complex, innovative, technological artifacts that are colorful, soft, and beautiful. We want to provide alternative pathways to the rich intellectual possibilities of computation and engineering. We hope that our research shows that disciplines can grow both technically and culturally when we re-envision and re-contextualize them. When we build new clubhouses, new, surprising, and valuable things happen. As our findings on shared LilyPad projects seem to support, a new female-dominated electrical engineering/computer science community may emerge...[continue reading]

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• LilyPad in the Wild: New Communities around Design, Engineering (craftzine.com)
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The Eco-Pesa Programme A Micro-currency

"...The Eco-Pesa (Ecological Money) programme has created a community business voucher to benefit the environment and economy of Kongowea, a [slum] district of Mombasa. The voucher acts as a currency that can be exchanged for local goods and services and redeemed for Kenyan Shillings. As Eco-Pesa can only be spent in registered businesses within Kongowea, its use creates a direct incentive for residents to take an active role in their community while also helping the local economy and environment..."-website

Slimtrader an eCommerce Platform

Technology Review reports on Slimtrader, which works:

...like a conventional e-commerce business, it relies on interactive databases to handle product inventory, pricing, orders, and payments. But, unlike, say, Amazon, users can interact with this database via short message service (SMS)."Instead of searching for products with a computer, we make it possible to query a retailer's inventory by text message," says founder Femi Akinde. "You are sent the results and can then buy via text as well."That could prove a hit in countries where shopping or paying bills means paying cash payments, and standing in a long line, he says. Slimtrader transactions draw funds from a person's cell-phone credit or can be provided using a prepaid or conventional debit or credit card.

More here

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Cooking Moin-Moin

Another marvelous food blog-Kitchen butterfly-outlines the preparation of street food favorite, Moin-Moin:

courtesy of Kitchen Butterfly

Make the mix In a blender or food processor, grind the beans with the onions, chilli pepper and stock till you get a smooth, thick paste. If you rub a bit between your fingers, you shouldn’t see large recognizable chunks of beans. If necessary, scoop the sides of the blender in and pulse till smooth. Put mixture into a large bowl and taste for salt – you should taste the sea...[continue reading]

Knife sharpening bicycle

In Bike Hacks:

Walking through a fish market in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, my friend and I first noticed a shower of sparks off to our left. Closer (but not too close) inspection showed this man sharpening a machete on a grindstone rigged to the back tire of this seriously rusted piece. He sat and pedaled backwards, taking a couple hundred shillings from each of his knife-wielding customers. You can see the pink string connecting the tire to the grindstone if you look really hard...[continue reading]

via Makezine

Maker Innovation Ecosystem

Africa take note from Makezine, in a speech post Maker Faire NY Thomas Kalil from the White House stated:

...we are seeing the early beginnings of a powerful Maker innovation ecosystem. New products and services will allow individuals to not only Design it Yourself, but Make it Yourself and Sell it Yourself. For example, Tech Shops are providing access to 21st century machine tools, in the same way that Kinkos gave millions of small and home-based business access to copying, printing, and shipping, and the combination of cloud computing and Software as a Service is enabling "lean startups" that can explore a new idea for the cost of ramen noodles.

More here

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Flying Doctors Nigeria

Ladybrille interviews Flying Doctors Nigeria founder Dr. Ola Orekunrin.In response to a question about the "current problems with healthcare in Nigeria?" she stated:

I’d like to start by introducing you to a concept called the golden hour which is the hour immediately after a trauma/acute medical emergency has occurred. When a patient reaches hospital within the golden hour, the chances of him/her surviving are drastically increased. The current time of arrival to hospital in Lagos post-trauma is an incredibly poor 3-4 hours. Poor road conditions, the tiny number of hospitals equipped to handle major trauma, traffic congestion and the sometimes huge distances to the nearest hospitals all contribute to the challenges the Flying Doctors Nigeria addresses with our air transportation service.

More here

Roadside kiosks are the future of sustainable Urban Design.

The BBC interviews TED Fellow DK Osseo-Asare asking the question "...how do you revamp what some deride as a blight on the face of African cities, into an emblem of forward-looking design?..." Listen here

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Komaza, a Forestry Company

How Komaza works:

...we partner with dryland farmers to help them plant drought-resistant trees on unproductive land. They get seedlings and tools on credit plus training, post-harvest processing and access to new markets.We spend less than $1 to plant a tree. And each tree returns at least $20 to the family. That’s over $6,000 from half an acre.Farmers rise out of poverty. The trees restore the environment and prevent deforestation. And each tree farm yields enough extra money to start nine new farms. KOMAZA will be able to achieve self-funded growth to more families

Watch related video:

A KOMAZA Preview from KOMAZA on Vimeo.

John Dabiri Biophysicist-Macarthur Fellow

From the 2010 list of Macarthur fellows:

John Dabiri is a biophysicist whose work draws on a wide range of fields—including theoretical fluid dynamics, evolutionary biology, and biomechanics—to unravel the secrets of one of the earliest means of animal locomotion. He studies some of the simplest multicellular organisms, jellyfish (medusae), which propel themselves by contracting cells in their bell-shaped outer skin and generating jet forces in the tail end, with tentacles trailing behind

More here

Aliko Dangote & Cement Production

CNN interviews Aliko Dangote and profiles his cement business:

Olatunbosun Obayomi- Has a solution for Nigeria's waste

From TED Global 2010:

TED Fellow Olatunbosun Obayomi discusses the potential of biogas:

Why We need more Maker Faires in Africa

Mtoto Wa Jirani writes:

Tech is booming in Africa, that’s a fact no one can challenge and moreover, growth is a good thing. Uneven growth is a not so good a thing and to be quite honest, I believe we have already embraced it...The risk here is that other sectors of the tech industry may suffer due to lack of innovation or mere interest! Sectors such as robotics, networking and even Business I.T...If the trend continues, what we’ll be seeing is a bunch of irrelevant tech solutions such as myriads of websites and web services which cannot be accessed by the majority of internet users seeing as 75% of Kenyans primarily access the internet from their mobile phone!...[continue reading]

On this blog we wrote about the need for a Make Philosophy that went beyond ICT. One that embraced the entire innovation landscape: metalworks, robotics,chemicals,design et al. Maker Faire Africa events champion creativity across the board and encourage cross-pollination between the various disciplines. This is key if the continent of Africa is to experience richly balanced ingenuity that is self-sustaining and robust. If we are to catalyze a real tech boom, it must be one that nurtures industries and resourcefulness across the board and not one that relegates our minds to limited niches.H/T Ory!

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Accents & Art

Founded by Constance Swaniker the award winning Accents & Art"...was set up with the aim of filling a void in the Ghanaian market for artistically worked iron. The characteristic feature of heated iron – its ductility and malleability – has been our sole inspiration and we have gone on to ingeniously blend exotic wood with glass and various materials to bring out the true splendor of metal art..."-website

Hooray for Nollywood!

In the Guardian:

Image via Wikipedia
A new festival, Nollywood Now, takes place in London from 6-12 October and is the first major event to celebrate the second largest film industry in the world. Its chief aim is to draw wider attention to the success and popularity the films enjoy across Europe, and particularly the UK.
Nollywood makes about 2,400 films per year, putting it ahead of the US, but behind India, according to a Unesco report last year. Nigerian film-makers tend to operate in a fast and furious manner; shoots rarely last longer than two weeks, cheap digital equipment is almost always used and the average budget is about $15,000 (£9,664). The finished products often bypass cinemas altogether and are instead sold directly to the "man on the street" for about $1.50 (£1). Most films shift between 25,000 and 50,000 copies globally – although a blockbuster can easily sell up to 200,000.

More here

Quick Hits

Health tourism redux-Apollo Hospitals Asia’s largest healthcare chain bets on Africa-AfricanLoft
Nairobi Food an eatery directory
The flourishing investment in African agriculture-Reuters
African Bicycle Design Contest

The Russian Funds

Bombastic Elements reports on a view from the perch of Renaissance Capital:

When capital is offered the choice between the high growth and low leverage of the new economies driving global growth, or the slow growth, high-leverage and structural inflexibility of the developed world, it will become increasingly impatient with the old model. The developed world will be forced to either restructure its economic model to compete in the emerging global economy, or face an increasingly torrid time of crisis, inflation and rapidly rising funding costs.

More here
Watch related video:

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