Highlights From DISCOP Johannesburg and Digital Lab Africa (feat. Jason Njoku of iROKO)

My colleague, Brian Lupiya and I spent three days last week at DISCOP Johannesburg— Africa’s biggest multi-screen, multi-platform marketplace, assessing trends within the continent’s digital content scene.

We spent most of our time collecting insights at the fringe of Digital Lab Africa (DLA)— a DISCOP partner initiative that aims to be a springboard for African multimedia talent looking to launch worthy projects and business ideas within digital music, web creation, virtual reality and video game development.

So this week, in place of the bringing you the week’s highlights in terms of digital, tech and innovation news from across Africa, Brian joined me on the show to help me present cool snippets from four of the many great conversations that we taped both at DLA and in DISCOP’s main exhibition area. The aim is to give you a sense of the vibe, as well as point to where the future of digital content production and platforms on the continent might be headed.

Look out for audio featuring Harlem Mofonkol, one of the co-founders of Baziks Pulse— a music streaming platform from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwean hip-hop artist-turned-entrepreneur, Nonkululeko Kasongo Vundla a.k.a Black Bird, Ivorian video game developer and co-founder of POINTS by Work’d— Kaba Diakité Amadou, and the inimitable Jason Njoku of Nigeria, who is founder and CEO of the internet and entertainment group, iROKO.

First published in AfricanTechRoundup.com.

Apple, Sony And Samsung Face Child Labour Allegations In The DRC

I had to face a tough truth this week. The fact is that I am complicit in the perpetuation of horrible crimes against humanity. And if you’re reading this right now, it’s likely that you are too.

If you’re an enthusiastic user of the useful tech products made by the likes of Apple, Sony and Samsung (as I am), then you’re contributing to the on-going exploitation of children as young as seven years of age in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In this week’s episode of the African Tech Round-up, Tefo Mohapi and I discuss the disturbing implications of an exposé recently put out by Amnesty International and African Resources Watch (Afrewatch), which names and shames leading technology manufacturers who use cobalt sourced in the DRC in lithium-ion batteries found in their products. (Fast fact: The DRC produces at least 50% of the world’s cobalt.)

There’s no doubt that there’s an argument for how companies and governments need to be held to account, but we as consumers need to realise that ultimately, it is we who wield the greatest economic leverage to influence commercial and political interests to act ethically.

The pertinent question is therefore less, “What will they do about it?” but more, “What am I going to do about it?”