Gadgets in Africa: Solving everyday problems with African ingenuity
We’re back online with our old blog! What started in 2006 by Erik Hersman , founder/co-founder of Ushahidi.com , Brck.com and other ventures, was quickly turned into a group blog, which featured various authors from around the world. Our mission: To showcase innovative humans who come up with different solutions to problems in environments that lack industry norms, access to professional tools, a supply of the right materials or just anything that is not made in a factory.
In Kenya, where most of our authors grew up or live in, this approach to problem solving is often called “jua kali” , as in “working under the hot sun” . Steve Daniels, former advisor at the now defunct Makeshift magazine, created a wonderful paper called “ Making Do – Innovation in Kenya’s Informal Sector ” in 2010 on this innovative culture that we never really mentioned on this blog: