Africa

[Sinnerman]

Journey of Eko Atlantic 2012 - YouTube

update on eko atlantic

 

[Primetime]

Its so true, we have all the resources, but don't produce anything, which is mind blowing. But alot Africans being educated overseas(myself included) get comfortable and refuse to change the status quo, and its an ongoing cycle.

Also I think more African countries need to trade between themselves rather than trade outside of the continent, shyt is stupid. At least in sub-saharan(for lack of a better term) Africa, because most North African countries( think they are closer to white people, well Arabs) are not to be trusted, there as bad as white people.

I think the best way to do it is for us who are overseas to organize a company with some financial backing... get in front of the African Union somehow, and give them an offer they can't refuse

To do it we'd also have to feed the crooked politicians though

Where can I fine gentlemen such as myself, with some disposable income, invest in Africa?

You all seem like knowledgeable fellas involving the Mother Continent.

Companies? Industries? Are American-invested small businesses welcomed? Any stocks?

Thanks friends.

There's probably emerging market funds. I don't know any off the top of my head. Do you have an advisor?

Mobile phones, networks, things like that are good bets in emerging markets and third world countries.

I'm not sure if I would go into business in Europe right now let alone South America or Africa...

Some knowledge in this thread....

Those pictures in the OP warmed my heart.

Yo, what's good with them Nollywood movies brehs? These cities look like they are DYING for a Bourne Identity type thing...and not starring a white boy either.

I love this thread. These quotes stood out the most to me (well, outside of the pic of that light skinned nigerian girl )

Nollywood appeals the most to me, simply because i fukkin hate the depiction of black/afrikan men and women in the US.v The Movies, TV shows, video games, comics, all of that, its trash!

I read about how Hollywood came to be and how this H.J. Whitely guy back in the late 1880s went to the LA area and bought about 500 acres of land, named it Hollywood cuz thats what his bytch came up with on they honeymoon, and proceeded to have hotels, post offices, banks and other shyt built there... and a couple decades later film studios including the four major ones (Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO and Columbia) decided to set up shop there and turned hollywood from crap into the center of the film industry.

Now a couple of you mentioned how itd be great if us overseas Africans would return home and invest in the motherland's economy... well, while perhaps too grand of an idea, I personally would love to go back home with some of my brehs and buy some land/properties in which film directors and personnel can establish their own studios and production companies... basically create the foundation for an actual tangible location for Nollywood where some structure, order, continued funding, etc. can be put in place. And just different activities and ventures with that ^ intent in mind.

Check out this article for context:

Inside Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood | Spear's WMS

CHINA HAS NO problem manufacturing cruise missiles, but could it ever produce a Tom Cruise? The US can fear the decline of its economic and military prowess, but when it comes to the film industry its soft power remains unrivalled. Global box-office takings for Hollywood films — without DVDs, TV or online sales — reached $32 billion last year, up 35 per cent on five years ago; Bollywood movies only took $3.25 billion in total.

The late North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il considered the US an annoyance second only to South Korea, but this didn’t stop him amassing 20,000 videos, many of which were Hollywood films. And while the quality may vary and the copy may well be illegal, whether you’re in central London or the Central African Republic, you’ll always be able to get your hands on the latest Hollywood action movie.

The Hollywood name has spread to other national film industries too now, from Bollywood to Zollywood (in Zimbabwe), but there are only two countries that beat the US in volume of films. The first is India, which produces more than 1,000 films a year, and the second is Nigeria, estimated to produce nearly 1,000 films a year.

While Nollywood is simply a term coined to describe Nigeria’s film industry rather than an actual place, its business centre is the crowded, chaotic Alaba Market in Lagos. Nollywood is the second largest employer after the government in Nigeria, but unlike in Hollywood, there are few execs in suits.

Filming conditions could hardly be more different between Nigeria and America. While it takes around 36 months to plan a film and twelve to produce it in Hollywood, Nollywood films are shot on digital videocams and only take around ten days to produce. A film costs £10,000-45,000 to make in Nigeria and the average Hollywood film over a thousand times more.

With few cinemas, the vast majority of Nollywood profits come from DVD sales, and because piracy is so widespread, film-makers only have a window of two weeks to sell their goods before the market is flooded by counterfeit copies.

This doesn’t mean that Nollywood films are not influential. Nollywood DVDs are distributed all over Africa and the African diaspora, which is no mean feat on a continent where average disposable income is tiny and the infrastructure is, to put it kindly, unreliable. ‘Even if you go to Zimbabwe, you will find people dressing like Nigerian film stars,’ says Cornel Onyekaba, a PhD student of Nigerian cinema at the University of Lagos (Unilag).

In many ways, Bollywood bears much more similarity to Hollywood than Nollywood does. Technically, the term Bollywood only applies to Hindi films made in Bombay, as India also has vibrant regional film industries where local languages are spoken. But, for the sake of simplicity, Spear’s is using Bollywood as an umbrella term for Indian cinema.

UNLIKE NOLLYWOOD, BOLLYWOOD has had access to bank finance since 2000. Until then, banks were not allowed to lend to films because of doubts regarding the commercial viability of film and a fear that Bollywood enjoyed too cosy a relationship with the mafia. After a legislative change to allow bank funding, Bollywood can now put on much grander films, with budgets running up to £13 million. Two large Indian studios are now listed on London’s stock market, which Rakesh Jariwala, a partner in tax and regulatory advisory services at Ernst and Young, says has increased the professionalism in the sector by introducing a studio model similar to that of Hollywood.

Edward Jay Epstein, the author of the Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies, suggested several big lessons for Nollywood and Bollywood if they want to compete directly with Hollywood. ‘The first thing they need to learn is that the movie business is not a movie business, it’s an intellectual property rights business, in which you create these intellectual property rights and sell them over a range of platforms,’ he says. This means stamping out on piracy, and also finding ways to tap more potential sources of revenue, including TV and online distribution rights.

The second lesson, according to Epstein, is that these intellectual property rights need to have truly international appeal, and one way of doing that is to reduce dialogue. ‘If you look at the big-selling films like Avatar and The Avengers, you need very little dialogue to understand them. The number of words in them is practically less than in The Artist. Hollywood has built a very skilled community of artists that can show people what they should feel or emote.’

Given this second point, one might start to wonder whether Bollywood or Nollywood should try to steal space from Hollywood, if instead they can provide a culturally distinct alternative that literally and metaphorically speaks to its audience. Perhaps, like cruise missiles, there are more than enough Tom Cruise films in the world. For many, Bollywood and Nollywood can provide welcome relief.

Box Cutta mentioned Bourne Identiy type flicks and Africa damn sure has the countries and cities for such things. Potential is there.

You see heralded shows like Game of Thrones and Spartacus, well we got our own empires and great ancient civilizations (and i'm not talkin about stereotypical/often used Egyptian stuff); i'm talkin about the Benin Empire, the Oyo (Yoruba) Empire, the Kanem Bornu empire, the Ogiso (Kings of the Sky) dynasty, Edo people in general... we got our own stories we can tell, spice up and glorify with our own mythology, kings, queens, warriors, beef, etc.. Potential is there.

You see a romance comedy like 'Think Like a Man' do 99 million box office but yet barely anything overseas and pretty much nothing from Africa when we know damn well africans would watch that shyt... but the theatres just aren't there.. but if they were tho... again, the potential..

I feel a lot of this is also tied into the perception of Africa. I don't think we should rely on anyone else but ourselves to represent ourselves (and our people) right. And we have the means and the will to do so but the execution (as with many things it often seems), organization and structure just isn't where it needs to be (yet).

 

[Sinnerman]

@Primetime

 

[Primetime]

appreciate it^

but foreal, this shyt be making me mad. its a perfect example of how the infrastructure is so fukked up on so many levels (to use Nigeria as an example)

there's only 1 theatre for every 5 million nigerians (as opposed to 1 for every 8,000 americans.. and i believe it was 1 for every million indians)

but building more theatres like that would mean big spending for construction, air conditioning, etc but that would almost be like shooting yourself in the foot given that ticket prices and attendance would have to be solid to make a positive return on investment... and i don't see those needed numbers in the 100s of thousands flocking to theatres to spend $10-14 + food and drinks.

and why wouldnt they spend cash in theatres? partly due to their huge dvd market, which would be all fine and good... except the only reason that shyt is even so strong is because dvds are dirt cheap (two bucks tops) and pirating is rampant (no laws/enforcement against such things).. so its not like there are specific companies profiting off dvd sales.. sales are cheap b/c everyone is selling them to everyone and so why even go to a movie theatre?

production for movies are primitive (cam corder, generic storylines, shot in 10 days or less) b/c why invest on big money and time if you wouldn't be owning the rights to your production 2 weeks after you let it go public?


and so from our end, i'd love for a bunch of us to come back and put out the money to make the proper production in movies or even go that dreamwork/pixar route (start up one of our own animation studios, hire black/african students majoring in computer science, graphic design, etc and put out stories that star black faces, for black kids).. but while the people would "support" it in their own way (i.e. pirate the fukk outta it once it hit the streets), the infratcture wouldn't support shyt, itd swallow up all our efforts like a black hole and leave us bankrupt quick.

shyt gets me salty b/c its like i don't know what to do

 

[newworldafro]

appreciate it^

but foreal, this shyt be making me mad. its a perfect example of how the infrastructure is so fukked up on so many levels (to use Nigeria as an example)

there's only 1 theatre for every 5 million nigerians (as opposed to 1 for every 8,000 americans.. and i believe it was 1 for every million indians)

but building more theatres like that would mean big spending for construction, air conditioning, etc but that would almost be like shooting yourself in the foot given that ticket prices and attendance would have to be solid to make a positive return on investment... and i don't see those needed numbers in the 100s of thousands flocking to theatres to spend $10-14 + food and drinks.

and why wouldnt they spend cash in theatres? partly due to their huge dvd market, which would be all fine and good... except the only reason that shyt is even so strong is because dvds are dirt cheap (two bucks tops) and pirating is rampant (no laws/enforcement against such things).. so its not like there are specific companies profiting off dvd sales.. sales are cheap b/c everyone is selling them to everyone and so why even go to a movie theatre?

production for movies are primitive (cam corder, generic storylines, shot in 10 days or less) b/c why invest on big money and time if you wouldn't be owning the rights to your production 2 weeks after you let it go public?


and so from our end, i'd love for a bunch of us to come back and put out the money to make the proper production in movies or even go that dreamwork/pixar route (start up one of our own animation studios, hire black/african students majoring in computer science, graphic design, etc and put out stories that star black faces, for black kids).. but while the people would "support" it in their own way (i.e. pirate the fukk outta it once it hit the streets), the infratcture wouldn't support shyt, itd swallow up all our efforts like a black hole and leave us bankrupt quick.

shyt gets me salty b/c its like i don't know what to do

good analysis ... .... ... idk either.....

I see a big market in the transportation market......take coastal West Africa again........

an Amtrak/European level train service that serves all those countries in coastal West Africa countries....would be huge....of course unlike Europe, I assume they would have to deal with passports, unless they could remove that for the serving countries..... This is the kind of infrastructure that is going to really build up theses countries in West Africa, they can put their resources together as opposed to doing infrastructure alone on everything....build a righteous transportation network/linkage...

A high speed train running from Dakar, Senegal along the coast all the way to Lagos or Port Harcourt would be ... you would be serving capital cities and some of the largest cities in the region...

Matterfact, tourists would be drawn to that, b/se they can experience several countries at once, along an efficient system........ just a matter of time, money, public participation, and government negotiation.......................................................

 

[Primetime]

good analysis ... .... ... idk either.....

I see a big market in the transportation market......take coastal West Africa again........

an Amtrak/European level train service that serves all those countries in coastal West Africa countries....would be huge....of course unlike Europe, I assume they would have to deal with passports, unless they could remove that for the serving countries..... This is the kind of infrastructure that is going to really build up theses countries in West Africa, they can put their resources together as opposed to doing infrastructure alone on everything....build a righteous transportation network/linkage...

A high speed train running from Dakar, Senegal along the coast all the way to Lagos or Port Harcourt would be ... you would be serving capital cities and some of the largest cities in the region...

Matterfact, tourist would be drawn to that, b/se they can experience several countries at once, along an efficient system........ just a matter of time, money, public participation, and government negotiation.......................................................

lol i know right, sounds like a peace of cake.....................

but thats a great idea tho, a fantastic one in fact. I'm not familiar at all with the inter-governmental relationship all those countries share with each other, and that may be some of the trouble that comes with having such a large continent divided into so many countries (as opposed to it being just 2-5 big countries with x amount of states)... a lot more pandering, compromising, and walking on egg shells to be had and sustained to get things going.

 

[MostReal]

good analysis ... .... ... idk either.....

I see a big market in the transportation market......take coastal West Africa again........

an Amtrak/European level train service that serves all those countries in coastal West Africa countries....would be huge....of course unlike Europe, I assume they would have to deal with passports, unless they could remove that for the serving countries..... This is the kind of infrastructure that is going to really build up theses countries in West Africa, they can put their resources together as opposed to doing infrastructure alone on everything....build a righteous transportation network/linkage...

A high speed train running from Dakar, Senegal along the coast all the way to Lagos or Port Harcourt would be ... you would be serving capital cities and some of the largest cities in the region...

Matterfact, tourists would be drawn to that, b/se they can experience several countries at once, along an efficient system........ just a matter of time, money, public participation, and government negotiation.......................................................

this would also provide plenty of jobs for the building of the infrastructure

I don't see why this can't be done.

 

[Sinnerman]

lol i know right, sounds like a peace of cake.....................

but thats a great idea tho, a fantastic one in fact. I'm not familiar at all with the inter-governmental relationship all those countries share with each other, and that may be some of the trouble that comes with having such a large continent divided into so many countries (as opposed to it being just 2-5 big countries with x amount of states)... a lot more pandering, compromising, and walking on egg shells to be had and sustained to get things going.

I actually wish the African Union would agree on Africa being one country, but hey

I see so much potential in Africa

 

[IrishBrother]

I actually wish the African Union would agree on Africa being one country, but hey

I see so much potential in Africa

Free movement of goods, services and labour is essential if we are to seriously progress as a continent.

 

[newarkhiphop]

this would also provide plenty of jobs for the building of the infrastructure

I don't see why this can't be done.

Politics

 

[Crakface]

There are chinese websites that pretty much have every movie out in theatres right now streamable.

 

[EQ.]

I read this thread bumpin this song
​

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgtjSPkuJ-E[/ame]

 

[Primetime]

I actually wish the African Union would agree on Africa being one country, but hey

I agree. As a kid I used to ask my mom why they didn't just do that lol this was before i had any idea about politics

its tough b/c its about sending us out of the home country/continent to get the best education/experiences around the world with the intent for us to come back and give back... but its like you can't even do that shyt properly -if at all in some cases- until the government(s) gets their shyt together. That's prob why so many are just like fukk it, they'll come back to visit but have no intentions to stay

Once the government(s) can lay down solid structure, safety and (most important) integrity then I feel growth and development would come quickly and be exponentially.

 

[Sinnerman]

I agree. As a kid I used to ask my mom why they didn't just do that lol this was before i had any idea about politics

its tough b/c its about sending us out of the home country/continent to get the best education/experiences around the world with the intent for us to come back and give back... but its like you can't even do that shyt properly -if at all in some cases- until the government(s) gets their shyt together. That's prob why so many are just like fukk it, they'll come back to visit but have no intentions to stay

Once the government(s) can lay down solid structure, safety and (most important) integrity then I feel growth and development would come quickly and be exponentially.

exactly. we just need order and structure.


and to the bolded I do that to this day. I just keeping asking my mom and dad why? Why is Africa in its current state Why don't we have a city like Paris/London/Tokyo/Hong Kong we can go to Even tho I know why I just keep asking

 

[Lewis Black]

Africa is sadly still in the dark ages. One day it will get out but everyday it seems like it gets exploited/raped.