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FOr a tech entrepreneur and peace activist， Mawuna Koutonin has unlikely roots.
The 40-year-old was born in a remote village in southeast Togo， and grew up to become the first of his father’s 36 children to earn a university degree. In 1994， Koutonin traded his basic food allowance at university to pay for his first class in computers. The following year he and a group of friends opened one of Togo’s first Internet news portals.
Since then， Koutonin has founded two online ventures， Goodbuzz， a marketing platform that utilizes embedded games to drive traffic flow， and SiliconAfrica， a news site that focuses on Africa’s tech startup and entrepreneurial environment.
Koutonin caught up with ChinAfrica’s reporter Nicholas Compton to share his views on Africa’s development. Excerpts of his thoughts follow：
ChinAfrica： As the founder and editor at SiliconAfrica， how have you seen the tech scene develop in Africa and where do you see it going from here？
Mawuna Koutonin： The tech scene is still at an infant level in most African countries， probably except South Africa. Africa is at the end of technology value chain， acting just as a consumer market where foreign hardware and software companies dump end of cycle or public-grade level technologies.
Africa has almost no global tech brand...100 percent of hardware and software is imported. For example， Nigeria imports over $30 billion of software licenses and related products and services every year. Most of the local software developers are framework and toolkits users， not binary-level computer scientists or engineers.
You’ve publicly stated your goal of establishing a school for youth to learn robotics， manufacturing and entrepreneurship in Togo by 2017. How did this goal come to fruition， and how is the process coming along？
The school idea is a long dream of mine to create an engineering center in the heart of Africa - Kikongo（Democratic Republic of Congo） - that would teach basic material processing， engineering design， mathematics and manufacturing - from metal fabrication to assemblies， which would one day grow to a world class company， like Boeing or Rolls Royce. It’s a big dream.
For now， my idea is to start a prototype of the school in Togo， my home country. Once the model proves functional and performs adequately， and we have ac- cumulated enough management skills and experience， then Congo will be the final destination.
What do you think of the ongoing evolution of Sino-African relations？ What steps do you think need to be taken for truly mutual benefit from these ties？ China has a part of its history which is very similar to ours. China has been under the evil domination of foreign countries several times. China has learned faster than Africans how to end the negative effect of imperialism and in the same time dusted its citizens from victimhood to a self-reliant and proud country.
The worst case for Africans would be Chinese becoming totally unideological about their relationship with Africa， and allying themselves with the West to loot more from the continent. So instead of one oppressor， we would have to deal with two big oppressors.
My wish is that the similarity of our history with the West might motivate Chinese to be sensitive to African nations’ wish to escape colonialism and imperialism.
In a broader sense， how do you think the international community should conceive of and conduct relations with African countries？
I think Africa should not ask for any favor from anyone， even from the so-called international community. Like a foreign diplomat once said， “Countries don’t have friends， they only have interests.” The world needs Africa more than Africa needs the world. Africans should first understand that and negotiate from that position. We are resourceful continent， envied by many. We are not the ones who need pity.
We don’t need aid. Africans should have the courage to refuse aid， because aid makes our leaders lazy， corrupted and unaccountable. It creates a beggar mentality which is now the biggest disease crippling African youth and elite.
In that regards， the Chinese thought leaders could become benevolent mentors for Africans leaders sharing the Chinese experience in leadership， and tactics of dealing with Western countries predatory behaviors.
The 40-year-old was born in a remote village in southeast Togo， and grew up to become the first of his father’s 36 children to earn a university degree. In 1994， Koutonin traded his basic food allowance at university to pay for his first class in computers. The following year he and a group of friends opened one of Togo’s first Internet news portals.
Since then， Koutonin has founded two online ventures， Goodbuzz， a marketing platform that utilizes embedded games to drive traffic flow， and SiliconAfrica， a news site that focuses on Africa’s tech startup and entrepreneurial environment.
Koutonin caught up with ChinAfrica’s reporter Nicholas Compton to share his views on Africa’s development. Excerpts of his thoughts follow：
ChinAfrica： As the founder and editor at SiliconAfrica， how have you seen the tech scene develop in Africa and where do you see it going from here？
Mawuna Koutonin： The tech scene is still at an infant level in most African countries， probably except South Africa. Africa is at the end of technology value chain， acting just as a consumer market where foreign hardware and software companies dump end of cycle or public-grade level technologies.
Africa has almost no global tech brand...100 percent of hardware and software is imported. For example， Nigeria imports over $30 billion of software licenses and related products and services every year. Most of the local software developers are framework and toolkits users， not binary-level computer scientists or engineers.
You’ve publicly stated your goal of establishing a school for youth to learn robotics， manufacturing and entrepreneurship in Togo by 2017. How did this goal come to fruition， and how is the process coming along？
The school idea is a long dream of mine to create an engineering center in the heart of Africa - Kikongo（Democratic Republic of Congo） - that would teach basic material processing， engineering design， mathematics and manufacturing - from metal fabrication to assemblies， which would one day grow to a world class company， like Boeing or Rolls Royce. It’s a big dream.
For now， my idea is to start a prototype of the school in Togo， my home country. Once the model proves functional and performs adequately， and we have ac- cumulated enough management skills and experience， then Congo will be the final destination.
What do you think of the ongoing evolution of Sino-African relations？ What steps do you think need to be taken for truly mutual benefit from these ties？ China has a part of its history which is very similar to ours. China has been under the evil domination of foreign countries several times. China has learned faster than Africans how to end the negative effect of imperialism and in the same time dusted its citizens from victimhood to a self-reliant and proud country.
The worst case for Africans would be Chinese becoming totally unideological about their relationship with Africa， and allying themselves with the West to loot more from the continent. So instead of one oppressor， we would have to deal with two big oppressors.
My wish is that the similarity of our history with the West might motivate Chinese to be sensitive to African nations’ wish to escape colonialism and imperialism.
In a broader sense， how do you think the international community should conceive of and conduct relations with African countries？
I think Africa should not ask for any favor from anyone， even from the so-called international community. Like a foreign diplomat once said， “Countries don’t have friends， they only have interests.” The world needs Africa more than Africa needs the world. Africans should first understand that and negotiate from that position. We are resourceful continent， envied by many. We are not the ones who need pity.
We don’t need aid. Africans should have the courage to refuse aid， because aid makes our leaders lazy， corrupted and unaccountable. It creates a beggar mentality which is now the biggest disease crippling African youth and elite.
In that regards， the Chinese thought leaders could become benevolent mentors for Africans leaders sharing the Chinese experience in leadership， and tactics of dealing with Western countries predatory behaviors.