Stereotypical Africans? Data-Driven Reasons for Nakumatt's Downfall, YouTube-Addicted Preschoolers & More
Is ka warran,
That's hello/how are you in Somali.
I love the ocean and got an excuse to see it when I spent some time in Dar es Salaam last week training public sector leaders from 11 African countries. Every time I get a chance to learn the flavours of digital that work across these countries, I see how far we have to go. The trip and weekend has led to a fortuitous opportunity to use the newsletter to 'set the agenda' rather than 'wrap up the week.' Let's get right to it.
Last year's Barbie Savior caused a ruckus online by showing some of the stereotypical imagery that willingly or unwillingly played into the “White Saviour Complex.” The project was aptly described in The Guardian as “...satirising the messiah complex of affluent westerners who spend time travelling in the developing world.” While there are many definitions, Nigerian author Teju Cole's timeless 2012 piece The White-Savior Industrial Complex is worth a read.
I love the work of the good people behind the SAIH - The Norwegian Students and academics International Assistance Fund have been up to. Since 2012, they've made some viral videos that challenge the stereotypes of the aid and development sector in Africa and present African agency and involvement in refreshing ways. Their first success was a video that is a literal super-cut of all the aid/development sector's “Let's Help Africa” from the last few decades. Started four years ago, their Radi-Aid: Africa for Norway video will put a smile on your face. The cheeky premise of Africans coming together to donate radiators for the blistering cold winter for 'struggling and suffering' Norwegians.
They then developed the Radi-Aid Awards named after the viral video. An annual award show shining a spotlight on positive and negative fundraising campaigns from the African continent. The winners of the Golden Radiator Award are recognised for “fundraising video which moves beyond depictions utilizing passive subjects, provides context, portrays people as active rather than passive, moves beyond stereotypes, describes tangible and achievable solutions to issues, and inspires rather than provokes guilt.”
While the winner of the Rusty Radiator Award is given to the fundraising video “with the worst use of stereotypes. This kind of portrayal shows overly simplistic messaging, depicts individuals or issues without context, fails to describe people in terms other than suffering or using clichéd visual tropes, and/or reinforces stereotypes of either an issue, a location, or a two-dimensional depiction.”
You've probably seen or experienced volunteerism. People from developed countries coming to Kenya, East Africa and developed countries. Call it the gap year or holidays, it manifests itself in tourism as well.
The travel is often sparked by a desire to search for meaning or lend a helping hand. However, at times despite the good intentions, the words and images of the social media posts can play to stereotypes. Stereotypes that translate to likes online and that feed a vicious social media cycle that upholds them. In the words that found themselves describing Barbie Savior “It’s not about me... but it kind of is.”
Fighting the scourge of self-serving selfies with African kids as a backdrop, they've put together an animated video and series of very helpful guidelines for teenagers, travellers and “voluntourists” in general. It is a refreshing look at ethical use of social media and I can't recommend the site, video or the PDF enough. I love that the video is called “How to get more likes on social media.” A way to positively troll people? A digital Rick-roll, of sorts?
This said, let me get straight to your week's tasting menu of links.
What to Sip | Reading Time: 30 seconds
“We needed to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever...It's a social validation feedback loop...You're exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology...[The inventors] understood this, consciously, and we did it anyway.”
Sean Parker, former President of Facebook in a video interview on Axios. In other Facebook-related news, you may be wondering about the seismic jump from 10 million people to over 126 million people who saw content and ads from Moscow's Internet Research Agency. The answer could be Instagram as Jonathan Albright posits in this 15-minute read on Medium.
In other Facebook-related news, they are training the unemployed in 30 cities in the US on internet literacy and social media skills. I can see a program like that coming to the continent soon. Months ago, in an unrelated pilot training class, I set the Facebook Africa team up with a local non-profit to train micro-entrepreneurs on using Facebook for business. Before you feel bad for Facebook, they just posted a 79% increase in profits.
What to Nibble | Reading time: 5 minutes
Chris Orwa, a data scientist and infrequent Nendo collaborator wrote a fantastic article on the supermarket habits of Kenyans. He reverse-engineered the profit margins of a 24-hour supermarket in downtown Nairobi called Karrymart. According to his data and assumptions, their 2,350 transactions generates $3,600 a weekday and approximately $10,800 in revenue a month.
His assumptions and approach are worth a read. He and his collaborators collected close to 1500 receipts from across the cities and postulates on why Nakumatt went bankrupt: spoiler alert, they didn't stock 3/5 of Karrymart's highest sales volume & profit-making items. Nakumatt don't stock cooked food, a dedicated bakery or dispensed milk. Food for thought (sorry, couldn't resist).
P.S. We're working on quantifying the ongoing boycott by the National Resistance Movement of 3 brands - Safaricom, Bidco & Brookside Dairies. If you want a sneak peek please write me, happy to share. We're looking to publish it this week.
What to Bite | Reading time: 20 minutes
Last week, all the focus was on YouTube and specifically the video creators, animators and distributors who have gamed the YouTube algorithm at the expense of infants and children.
We live in a hyper-connected society and this may be one of the more disturbing things you read about the internet. James Bridle got a global conversation started with this detailed exposé that I can't recommend enough - brace yourself. It is a pretty disturbing read showing shocking graphic and sexual violence targeted at the minds of toddlers and young children.
If you've ever seen any nephew/niece/child unsupervised on a phone and thought it a harmless way of them interacting with the web and learning nursery rhymes or watching cartoons, think again.
The takeaway is never leave your child (especially 10 and under and most of all 1-5-year-old) unsupervised on YouTube or YouTube Kids. Second, watch all videos yourself and download them to view 'offline' without the algorithm and online data to funnel through the other content.
I recommend complimenting this with two other reads Do you know what your toddler is watching on YouTube is older but deeply valuable and filled with some great quotes and context. If you have time to read more on it, this piece on The Atlantic on what YouTube's algorithm reveals about addicted pre-schoolers will give you all the pause you need.
Such is the beauty of user interfaces that a toddler with a few gestures could launch YouTube but couldn't turn on a television.
Bottom of the News-letter
I'm experimenting with giving you a list of the links that don't make it into the newsletter (we always have plenty):
- Article: Do social media threaten democracy by The Economist | 20 minute read (I'll be on NTV's show Press Pass with Mark Masai tonight discussing this very article. There are things I agree and disagree with it about and if you want to watch it, you can see it at 10 PM EAT (GMT+3:00) and stream it live here.)
- Video: How do Snapchat's filters/lenses work? by Vox Observatory | 5 minute watch
- Article: How did the news go 'fake'? When the media went social by Claire Wardle and Hossein Derakhshan in The Guardian | 6 minute read
- Slide presentation: The Modern Player's Guide to SEO by Teodoro Urdeva on Slideshare.
- Article: Vertical or Horizontal by Josh Breinlinger | 5 minute read
- Article: 4 Ways to win in Low-Frequency Marketplaces by Casey Winters | 9 minutes
- Podcast: Interview with Kasi Insight CEO Yannick Lefang (loved the conversation on total addressable market size) by Andile Masuku | 27 minutes
Finally,
That's it for this week (or is it last week's) newsletter. My questions are:
- Do you prefer beginning of the week? Mondays? Got a favourite day of the week?
- Bottom of the News-letter - 👍or 👎?
I'm back in Nairobi and gearing up for a very busy next month or so. As I said I'll be on the road, so if you want to catch a coffee, my itinerary is Philadelphia>DC>Kigali>Garowe with whistle stops in Nairobi throughout.
Please let others know about the newsletter, if you enjoy it. Click here to share it on Twitter.
We publish it as a Facebook Note on our page, so you can always go there and share from there. Your feedback and testimonial, too does go a long way.
We're also running a sustainability challenge with The Green Teams. If you want to take up our 7-Day challenge, you can choose to live smart, eat smart or move smart.
Fancy that you can walk 10,000 steps a day and/or give up your private/corporate car in favour of carpooling and group transportation (matatu,anyone?). You could also go vegetarian or vegan for a week. Lastly, you could choose to take cold showers, save electricity and water over the week. Your choice.
Interested? Sign up here. It is from 26th Nov to 2nd December. #7Waysin7Days.
Thanks,
Yours
Mark & Team Nendo. |
