Throughout history, African societies have been connected to one another through expansive networks of knowledge, science, and innovation. For centuries, the ancient city of Timbuktu thrived as a center for arts, scholarship, and commerce as scholars, poets, and merchants traversed the Sahara to exchange ideas and goods. To the South, massive stone complexes in present-day Zimbabwe and Mozambique hosted hundreds of knowledge and trade centers dating back to the 12th century, while to the North, scholars in Alexandria honed their knowledge in the world’s largest library. In the East, Swahili traders sailed the Red Sea and crossed the Indian Ocean to trade gold with Asia, and the Moroccan scholar and explorer Ibn Battuta once travelled all the way to Zanzibar from his starting point in Tangier.
— — Today, new technological infrastructure and forms of work have enabled the latest iterations of these ancient networks and hubs. Across Africa, undersea and terrestrial fiber optic cables have crisscrossed, overlayed, and enhanced traditional African land and sailing routes. From the Dakar Biennial to mobile hackerspaces in rural Egypt, tech and art clusters are gathering scientists, entrepreneurs, and creatives to work at the intersections of the physical, digital, and biological. And from science and technology parks in Botswana, to Google's first artificial intelligence lab in Ghana, new types of hubs and communities are fostering the exchange of novel practices and ideas, supporting new professions, and amplifying experimental forms of expression.
— — Meanwhile, advances in artificial intelligence, blockchain, 3D printing, and more are disrupting every industry in every country in a manner unlike anyone has ever experienced before. In Kenya, Safaricom’s M-Pesa has registered over 17 million users for its mobile-phone-based, encrypted monetary exchange platform, while the National Bank of Kenya may soon incorporate blockchain into its operations. In Egypt and Morocco, the world's largest solar parks are currently being built. Health tech companies in Nigeria are using artificial intelligence for fast medical diagnoses, drones in Rwanda are now delivering blood to hospitals in remote locations, and rural farming communities across the continent can now ascertain the market price for their crops with the press of a button on their phones. Going even further, various African countries have recently launched their own space travel programs.
— — Standing at the crossroads of space and time, 100 participants of the inaugural African Crossroads will gather for three days in Marrakech, Morocco to connect, collaborate, and explore their own roles in shaping Africa’s ongoing technological and intellectual revolution, and to build new roads and centers of knowledge, art, entrepreneurship, and innovation across the African continent.
TRACK #1—AFRICAN KNOWLEDGE, INNOVATION, AND SKILLS CENTERS
TRACK #2—AFRICAN VALUE CHAINS
TRACK #3—AFRICAN STORYTELLERS
Visit: Click to visit programme link
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