Africa On The Rise

The news we get from Africa tends to focus on the negative. From Algeria to Zimbabwe, Africa is a continent of great diversity. But the Western media tends to focus on Africa’s big problems - wars fought by child soldiers bearing AK-47s, AIDS and other diseases on the rise and going untreated, famines, and political corruption and dictatorship blocking prospects for a solution. But, there are other stories to consider.

Business school professor Vijay Mahajan presents a very uplifting vision of Africa’s economic prospects in his new book, Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think.

But he wasn't always so optimistic. Before the book he writes that he "saw Africa more as a charity case than a market opportunity." But spending three years travelling across Africa changed his mind. Africa is one of the youngest markets in the world - of its 900 million people, 41 percent are under the age of 15.

Rather than speaking with politicans and World Bank officials, he interviewed young people - entrepreneurs who balance local traditions with global trends, and who are reshaping Africa into a growing economic market. Vijay Mahajan holds a chair in business at the University of Texas in Austin, and he joins us from KUT in Austin.

We also get to see the embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit in South Africa. Despite daunting unemployment in the continent’s strongest economy, many make their living in the informal sector. Independent producer Christopher Werth brings us the story of a woman living in a dense, rural township on the outskirts of Johannesburg. She started a small food retail business, and turned it into a vibrant fixture of the community.

(Photo by Tim & Annette Gulick)