That was the response of His Excellence Kwame Nkrumah to the question of what is the meaning of being an African.   

Ladies & Gentlemen, good Afternoon. Today the question we shall be asking is what is Africa? Is Africa just a geographic location in the global landscape or being Africa is a living spirit?   We need first to define these 6 letters (A.F.R.I.C.A) before we can move forward or we can chose remain stand still.   In his quest to see a true liberated, unified & developed Africa, in 1997 this great leader spoke these words 

He understood then that, the true value of this continent proper success lies in it ability to network, hence he put it to the top of his leadership endeavour and wished to see it being practiced at every level as the bases of what entrepreneurship should be build upon.   In order for Africa to really achieve its potential, we need new type of entrepreneurs, business leaders and social activists who see the continent as viable 55 different markets saving one purpose. African as a bloc, presents entrepreneurs with unique opportunity that you could not find elsewhere in the globe. Every business strives to get access to a diverse market. Yet, African is the only continent that provide a truly multitude of diversity. 

There is nothing more important to entrepreneur than that. The freedom to create knowing very well that it will be consumed. With all these varieties in the continent, new African entrepreneurs must accept to be open in collecting these data, study them with interest and act to satisfy your creative juice.   Maybe, what is important for me here is to go back and define what “ entrepreneur and entrepreneurship” mean. I define entrepreneur as an individual who makes living through his/her passion. If you are not making a living using what you are passionate about, you are not an entrepreneur. (Check my previous article about successful entrepreneur). 

I do hope, those of us who call ourselves, “African”, our passion is Africa. If that is the case, we shall be making a living by serving Africa. On the other hand, entrepreneurship is the art of becoming an entrepreneur. It is the dance that including the understanding of what you want to do, where and when. It is all the ingredients that will tune you to be a solid entrepreneur. Network and total understanding of the market is major to success or not. When I travel the world, speaking to entrepreneurs or, my points has been that, the best weapon we possess as entrepreneurs is our perspective.   

Our perspectives are formed based on our reality and how we experience our world. So as entrepreneurs, we should be guided on how we perspective our continent and its people.   Our behaviour is a result of our experiences. If there is something we must and we need to celebrate is our diversity. Only then, our attitude toward our diversity will benefit us.   Our diversity was used in the past by the colonial masters. They gain so much. So, why can’t we use it to better our continent?   Unfortunately, since the formation of “ Organisation de l’Unite Africaine” that is now AU, That African unity still a slogan and existing only on “paper as a draft”. Yes, we remind ourselves of its existence with “events” once a year. 

Africa Unity is not yet a “behaviour.”   Ladies & Gentlemen, Our generation is in big trouble. We don’t have a legacy project. Let make a true boundless Africa a reality. We need solid application and concrete efforts to ensure … we create our own legacy. Our grand fathers gave us liberation from colonial masters and created a body based on that idea. (OUA). They were not perfect but they did what they could base on what they knew.   

Our fathers, with all their challenges in their new world, hold the fragile continent that still had so much influence from the colonial masters and apartheid Southern Africa as much as they could until the defeat of the last evil, forged to create (at last) AU, under a fully liberated continent. Their legacy was achieved. Africa is 100% liberated and free. Africans can ( if so chose) do whatever they chose to do, whenever they want to do it, such as “borderless continent”   What will be our generation legacy? What are our generation’s excuses? We know what Africa wants, we know our populations, country’s sizes, we know our resources, we know the limitations of the current leadership, we know the value of our diversity, we know our demographics, we know…we know… so what are our excuses? What is our legacy?   His excellence Mwalimu Julius Nyerere said in Addis Ababa the following words. Today, his words have become part of African proverbs…

We have been gifted with a free, diverse market and still, resourceful continent. Our only duty is to see it prosperous and better prepared for those who will come after us. As we change streets, city and place’s names to honour those who came before us, we shall ask if history will do the same to us and how! 

The spirit of African entrepreneur shouldn’t be guided by making money quickly or becoming wealthy but by providing services and solutions that will make money and make them worthy. That can be achieved if we look at Africa as 55 different and diverse market to provide services, goods or solutions to.