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Life As An African Web Developer
There's an interesting look at the realities of high-tech in Africa running on NewsForge -- specifically, one writer's account of starting a web development company in Ghana, dealing with obstacles including power problems worse than the norm in deepest California.
So's ya' wanna be some Web African honky codemer?
...
Monday April 21, 2003 - [ 09:07 AM GMT ]
Topic - Business - Guido Sohne - Accra, Ghana - Wo'kin' as some software developuh' in Web Africa
kin be some tryin' 'espuh'ience. ah' rememba' de days when, less dan two monds into startin' some
new company, we had t'endure da damn infamous "load-sheddin'" -- some practice uh cuttin' off
electricity t'whole secshuns uh de city in o'da' to conserve power. Ah be baaad... Neva' mind
dat ya' need electricity t'wo'k and ya' need t'wo'k t'eat. Man! Nowadays doodads is much betta'
-- dey plum cut off electricity widout any warnin' whutsoeva' o' de powa' fluctuates crazily
and da damn electricity co'po'ashun dinks dat be entirely no'mal. We plum have t'make savin'
every five minutes some habit as well as run journalled EXT3 stashsystems dat won't co'rupt
data even if de powa' browns out 5 times an hour. Ah be baaad.....
I kin't recon' de Califo'nians complained about rollin' brotherouts ! Preach it loud, bruddah!
Some sucka's gots it baaaad! Right on! Dere is so many doodads dat is snatchn fo' granted in
mo'e developed countries dat it be hard t'imagine da damn environment dat 'esists in Web Africa. WORD!
Let's snatch labo' supply fo' instance, if ya' is goin' t'run some software company ya'
basically gots dree choices, dig dis:
1) Hunt around fo' real baaaad honky codemers. Sell yo'
moda' to keep dem cuz' dat be whut ya' gots'ta t'do if ya' wants' dese prima-donnas t'stay.
Slap mah fro! Good luck! Preach it loud, bruddah!! Right on! Dese dudes is all fantasizin' about
bein' Bill Gates and if ya' duzn't look likes Bill and gots some pocket likes Bill...
Good luck! Preach it loud, bruddah!! Right on! I'll be seein' ya' on de oda' side, where da damn
grass be greener. Ah be baaad...
2) Process literally tons uh resumes. Each mond some ho'de uh new
honky codemers, freshly trained out uh NIIT mosey on down wid impressive lookin' syllabuses,
certificates etc. Co' got d' beat! claimin' skills in Java, C++, COM, Oracle, SQL, HTML and
MS Office. De problem be dat, dough de syllabus looks baaaad and would be some baaaad startin'
point fo' bein' some software developuh' in apprenticeship, de head homeboys spend hardly any time
wid de students. Dey plum churn students drough de institushun and probably kin't keep down wid de
demand fo' certificates.
Bottom line, dig dis: Dese dudes is less dan half-baked and kinnot do
productive wo'k. Ya' know? Not when ya' duzn't wanna lose da damn client. Man! And da damn guv'ment
wants's some Indian company t'invest into dis radical doodad t'de tune uh ova' $1,000,000?
God help us all.
3) De last choice be probably de most ludicrous. You's gots'ta teach dem how t'code.
ah' mean ya' find smart sucka's, hire dem off de street and teach dem how t'scribble honky codes.
Whut's wrong wid dis? ah' mean, we is tryin' t'make some profit developin' software but we find
ourselves runnin' some farm where we pay our students... Good joke! Preach it loud, bruddah!
But seriously, dis be whut ya' gots'ta do if ya' wanna make yo' business wo'k.
Ya' know? Ax' S.O.F.T if ya' duzn't recon' me. One approach gots been t'divide da damn problem
into some library dat duz de hard part, and code donkeys who do de tedious part. Man!
It wo'ks, no doubt about it. Man! But it results in poo' applicashuns. Very inefficient designs.
No innovashun. De same way uh hangin' doodads every time. Dere's no substitute fo' some baaaad
honky codemer. Ah be baaad... And whut choice do ya' gots when ya' kin't find many baaaad
honky codemers? Dis be not some vicious cycle. Far fum it. Man! It's some malicious environment.
Man! Survival uh de fittest, survival bein' de opuh'tive wo'd. Ahh, de life in Web Africa
we betta' haid upside to de beach befo'e we 'esplode in frustrashun o' kick d' cud from some
stress-induced heart attack. Ya' know?
Well, ya'
...from now on, I'm forgetting all my dreams of turning Ghana into the Software Capital of the World.
I'll be staying in California. Thank you very much.
At least getting operating capital should be easy, with so many business people and government officials offering to pay well for a little help.
Why, I have six business offers in my email just this morning! It would be so much easier to help those people when you're on the same continent.
Hell, I've been coding for years and you couldn't teach me perl in 3 month :)
Well, that's because programming in perl and understanding perl are two completely different things. :)
Crap... I think I clicked the "read more" link and ended up back in 1996... A few words from the future (April of 2003):
All in all things aren't that different in the future :-P
Power problems aren't that bad here in Califo#%*(!.
It's great that you traveled halfway across the world to feel better about yourself.
This one guy told me they had millions of dollars in a Swiss account that they wanted to forward to me -- he had some connection with the government I think. Could we somehow utilize this seemingly untapped resource sitting in the hands of locals to fund better resources for the country as a whole?
t-i-c.
request for urgent i.t. business relationship
first, i must solicit your strictest confidence in this transaction. this is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and 'top secret'. i am sure and have confidence of your ability and reliability to prosecute a transaction of this great magnitude involving a pending transaction requiring maxiimum confidence. i got your name from slashdot.
we are top i.t. official of the federal government contract review panel who are interested in imporation of software and technology into our country with funds which are presently trapped in nigeria. in order to commence this business we solicit your assistance to enable us transfer into your account the said trapped funds.
the source of this fund is as follows; during the last military regime here in nigeria, the government officials set up i.t. companies and awarded themselves contracts which were grossly over-invoiced in various ministries. (typical for i.t. consultants) the present civilian government set up a contract i.t. review panel and we have identified a lot of inflated contract funds which are presently floating in the central bank of nigeria ready for payment.
however, by virtue of our position as i.t. civil servants and members of this i.t. panel, we cannot acquire this money in our names. i have therefore, been delegated as a matter of trust by my colleagues of the panel to look for an overseas partner into whose account we would transfer the sum of us$21,320,000.00(twenty one million, three hundred and twenty thousand u.s dollars). hence we are writing you this letter. we have agreed to share the money thus; 1. 20% for the account owner 2. 70% for us (the officials) 3. 10% to be used in settling taxation and all local and foreign expenses. it is from the 70% that we wish to commence the importation business.
please,note that this transaction is 100% secure since we have used ssh and kerbos to end you this email and we hope to commence the transfer latest seven (7) banking days from the date of the receipt of the following informatiom by tel/fax; 800-suc-medry, your i.t. company's signed, and stamped letterhead paper the above information will enable us write letters of claim and job description respectively. this way we will use your i.t. company's name to apply for payment and re-award the contract in your company's name.
we are looking forward to doing this i.t. business with you and solicit your confidentiality in this transation. please acknowledge the receipt of this letter using the above tel/fax numbers. i will send you detailed information of this pending project when i have heard from you.
yours faithfully,
dr clement okon (director nigerian i.t. consultants)
note; please quote this reference number (ve/s/09/99) in all your responses.