This tweet really, really bothered me. I mean, I get it, it’s a tweet and it’s supposed to grab attention in only so many characters. But coming from a UK mainstream publication? Well, the UK already tried this “get rich quick” thing in Africa already. It was called colonialism. And it didn’t end well.

And do we really need more narratives that promote Africa as a land to “get rich quick”, as opposed to a place where development should take place at the pace established by locals and with priorities and goals set by them? Wired is a bastion of the worst of techno-capitalism. Does Africa need more resource depletion coming from technology related business (i.e. mining for metals used in computers, just to use a glaring example)?

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