Guys, this (bit by bit on the blackberry) method is actually working! So far, I’ve written about 1500 words. A typical chapter would fall between 3000 and 5000 words. Your comments help more than you realize so don’t be stingy. Whoever reads this should say something. And to those of you regular comment leavers: muchos gracias, merci beaucoup, dalu ofuma, nagode maku, ese, gratis, danyavahd, xie xie, THANK YOU! Four to five more posts and the chapter on Kenya is done. Ok. Back to work. Where were we? Ah yes…

I’d earlier stated that playing catch up with the west is a strategy rigged to fail. This idea is probably better illustrated than explained. After the focus group, Diana, Allan, Linda who’d been with us at the library, and I headed over to Diana’s office where she kept us entertained with P-Squared music videos. P-Squared is a Nigerian music duo comprising two brothers – Peter and Paul. The pair came on the scene in the mid-2000s but it was hard to take them seriously. It’s not that they weren’t talented. In fact their performance was the best I’d seen out of Nigeria in a while. The problem was they seemed too interested in being Usher Raymond or some other Karaoke version of an American R&B sensation. It just wasn’t believable. A few years down the line, their act became less copycat they’ve become one of the most successful artists out of Nigeria. Their style remained contemporary, but was now peppered with traditional flavors. This combination of modern instruments and synthesizers with traditional storylines and language cannot be seen as an imitation of anything else. P-Squared had finally entered the building and the whole continent was listening. Their 2008 concert in Nairobi was as packed as an overrun stadium of prebuscent Nsync fans.

This phenomenon is not just true for music and movies. It is evident in nearly every endeavor where genuine African originality – instead of a mimicry of western trends – thrives. The most recognized Africans on the planet are those who’ve been truest to their African heritage. If Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka had written books about the lives of the western characters they’d grown up reading about instead of the life they knew firsthand, they wouldn’t be the icons they are today. If Lisa Folawiyo, founder of Jewel by Lisa, and an acclaimed Nigerian designer was making englishwear instead of the Batik she is known for, her work would have been lumped in among that of the myriad would-be designers trying to design clothes for a western audience in an already saturated market.

Even from a purely empirical stance, originality is Africa’s smartest move. More on that in the next blog…