How Africa grew more than 200 local tech scenes

Before 2010, Africa had a handful of tech hubs. Botswana had its Innovation Hub; Pretoria, South Africa had its Innovation Hub; and there were a few more places that served to actively encourage the development of digital technology on the continent. Now, five years later, there are 220, according to an exhaustive list maintained by Fab Lab.

From the Centre Songhai in Benin to the Hypercube Hub in Zimbabwe, there are tech hubs, business incubators, hacker spaces, and maker spaces, all of which serve as indicator species for the health of Africa’s tech ecology. They offer collaborative spaces for programmers, nerds, entrepreneurs, and designers who can usually join on an affordable sliding scale and gain access to excellent connectivity, technology, and training.

The big question is, why? Why has this specific expression of the continent’s digital zeitgeist come out on top? How was it even possible?