On the tracks of the mythic « Cape to Cairo » railway, this new project aims at bringing a novel, original perspective of the sub-Saharan African continent.
Centred on the identification of innovative local entrepreneurs, the prospection of promising regional opportunities of development and the reflection upon the general matters proper to these societies, the 11,077 km-long expedition will cover a total of 9 countries laying from Cape Town (South Africa) to Kampala (Uganda).
The end result will be the creation of an inventory and associated directory listing the best ideas encountered. With a focus on the agro-industry sector we will gather an anonymous panel of industry experts to vote for the most innovative, sustainable and impactful concept or idea. If successful, we will then call in for finance and intelligence - aiming at materialising our support to the exceptional African entrepreneurship spirit.
The Story
This project grew in the mind of people that have created and lived several other adventurous entrepreneurial projects. We thought we should share a part of them here with you.
This project grew in the mind of people that have created and lived several other adventurous entrepreneurial projects. We thought we should share a part of them here with you.
Chapter 1 - Confronting realities
Everything started back in the old days of summer 2009 when a bunch of friends of childhood, passionate of geopolitics and - contextually speaking - the israelo-palestinian conflict, decided to go for the backpack trip of their lives.
Freshly arrived in Adana (Turkey, Middle East), they started hitchhiking south, then into and across Syria, Jordan, Israël and with insistence, finally managed to enter the palestinian territories' West Bank. This breathtaking experience was without a doubt a lifetime experience considering the cultural shock experienced at such young age and the wealth of human relations developed and established.
Nevertheless, from this unforgettable step in some of the most confronting realities of the world has rapidly emerged a certain frustration. No purposeful project had been built around their ideas. They were left to themselves with their thoughts, feelings, established affinities and photographs.
And that was it.
Everything started back in the old days of summer 2009 when a bunch of friends of childhood, passionate of geopolitics and - contextually speaking - the israelo-palestinian conflict, decided to go for the backpack trip of their lives.
Freshly arrived in Adana (Turkey, Middle East), they started hitchhiking south, then into and across Syria, Jordan, Israël and with insistence, finally managed to enter the palestinian territories' West Bank. This breathtaking experience was without a doubt a lifetime experience considering the cultural shock experienced at such young age and the wealth of human relations developed and established.
Nevertheless, from this unforgettable step in some of the most confronting realities of the world has rapidly emerged a certain frustration. No purposeful project had been built around their ideas. They were left to themselves with their thoughts, feelings, established affinities and photographs.
And that was it.
Chapter 2 - Building a meaningful project
At the perspective of summer 2010, the same friends had agreed to join their synergies once more in order to foster a novel opportunity of foreign encounter and exchange. Fundamentally, what they really wanted was to deliver a testimony of their confrontation to some of the world’s realities. Their first preoccupation was to find an idea that would allow them to build a purposeful project aimed at enlightening one of our world’s societal, ethnic conflicts. They were conscious of the luck they had of growing up within relatively wealthy countries and societies and the european vision of nations had helped grow a common sense of passionate interest for what, where and why things could be different elsewhere.
Yes but at the time, as young, novice and innocent students, towards who could they really turn themselves to expose their ideas and build upon the trust acquired? Who could be willing to support and finance such idealistic enterprise? No one. They were condemned to embark themselves on an entirely independent, exploratory and self-constructed project. They were condemned to assume the whole of the risks associated with their venture-to-be.
Following numerous brainstorming sessions, they realised that filming or photographing were some things they could quite easily assume by themselves without any external assistance - no matter how amateur.
Further developments comforted them in this idea and soon enough, they started to reach out for relatives and friends capable of helping them with professional camera rentals and other media-related resources. They became able to reach out for the financial support of several organisations including the Luxembourgish Ministry of Youth.
In the meanwhile, a democratically argued debate appeared between them on the continent, region, countries for which there could be a perspective of enterprise. Debating unsurely but steadily led their curiosity to the unknown yet mysterious continent of Africa and its Great Lakes region where, in 1994, came about one of the world’s most tragic massacre : the Rwandan genocide.
Fascination for the history of Rwanda and the Great-Lakes region grew exponentially with their interest and the thought of introducing this country 16 years after the genocide eventually came to them as an evidence.
At the time, Rwanda was not only facing a political but also a demographical and economic transformation. The children who survived the genocide were now part of the labour market and several of them were involved in politics. 2010’s august presidential election was a democratic test for the Rwandan President Paul Kagame and for Rwanda as a reunited society. We had just crossed the symbolic threshold of a generation since the genocide, and a new History was being written. The image retained by most foreigners are an haemorrhage of dead bodies on the roadsides and in the campaigns. The 4 wished to show that the Rwandans had been able to forgive in order to rebuild - although the marks left by the genocide were inevitably still on people's minds and hearts.
The project resulted in the shoot of over 12 hours of film including exclusive interviews, workshops, scenery, controversial business; over 3000 photographs; tens of articles written and videos realised; countless encounters with a wide spectrum of Rwandan, Ugandan and Congolese actors of the society, ranging from ministers to homeless people including CEOs, NGO coordinators and many others.
At the perspective of summer 2010, the same friends had agreed to join their synergies once more in order to foster a novel opportunity of foreign encounter and exchange. Fundamentally, what they really wanted was to deliver a testimony of their confrontation to some of the world’s realities. Their first preoccupation was to find an idea that would allow them to build a purposeful project aimed at enlightening one of our world’s societal, ethnic conflicts. They were conscious of the luck they had of growing up within relatively wealthy countries and societies and the european vision of nations had helped grow a common sense of passionate interest for what, where and why things could be different elsewhere.
Yes but at the time, as young, novice and innocent students, towards who could they really turn themselves to expose their ideas and build upon the trust acquired? Who could be willing to support and finance such idealistic enterprise? No one. They were condemned to embark themselves on an entirely independent, exploratory and self-constructed project. They were condemned to assume the whole of the risks associated with their venture-to-be.
Following numerous brainstorming sessions, they realised that filming or photographing were some things they could quite easily assume by themselves without any external assistance - no matter how amateur.
Further developments comforted them in this idea and soon enough, they started to reach out for relatives and friends capable of helping them with professional camera rentals and other media-related resources. They became able to reach out for the financial support of several organisations including the Luxembourgish Ministry of Youth.
In the meanwhile, a democratically argued debate appeared between them on the continent, region, countries for which there could be a perspective of enterprise. Debating unsurely but steadily led their curiosity to the unknown yet mysterious continent of Africa and its Great Lakes region where, in 1994, came about one of the world’s most tragic massacre : the Rwandan genocide.
Fascination for the history of Rwanda and the Great-Lakes region grew exponentially with their interest and the thought of introducing this country 16 years after the genocide eventually came to them as an evidence.
At the time, Rwanda was not only facing a political but also a demographical and economic transformation. The children who survived the genocide were now part of the labour market and several of them were involved in politics. 2010’s august presidential election was a democratic test for the Rwandan President Paul Kagame and for Rwanda as a reunited society. We had just crossed the symbolic threshold of a generation since the genocide, and a new History was being written. The image retained by most foreigners are an haemorrhage of dead bodies on the roadsides and in the campaigns. The 4 wished to show that the Rwandans had been able to forgive in order to rebuild - although the marks left by the genocide were inevitably still on people's minds and hearts.
The project resulted in the shoot of over 12 hours of film including exclusive interviews, workshops, scenery, controversial business; over 3000 photographs; tens of articles written and videos realised; countless encounters with a wide spectrum of Rwandan, Ugandan and Congolese actors of the society, ranging from ministers to homeless people including CEOs, NGO coordinators and many others.
Chapter 3 - Associating enterprise and common wealth
Nowadays, the population of eastern Congo is determined to live in peace and prosperity. For that matter, it frequently claims its desire to live a life just as its Ugandans or Rwandans neighbours do - peacefully. During the 1st and 2nd rebellions, a lot of areas in eastern D.R.C were inaccessible given their militia-held control. The successive wars have created massive internal displacements of refugees that have left their land and relatives for more than a decade. For that reason, the Congolese population is eager to claim its right to regional mobility. Some families have been separated and they now want to reunify or at least visit their beloved relatives.
Furthermore, some border-cities such as Beni, Butembo or Bunia have largely benefited from their proximity with Uganda and in particular Entebbe Airport (Uganda); these last years, the import-export sector has grown exponentially for all types of goods. The rise of trade has attracted countless businessmen to these distant cities attracted by a high demand in price-competitive goods.
Witnessing the considerable advance of Uganda and Rwanda in infrastructures and coach travel in the ongoing of the 2010 project made clear at what point the DRC suffered of a cruel lack in public and private transports. Prolonged contacts with the Congolese and local administrations met at the time rendered obvious the cruel demand for any mean of transportation. The absence of other than 100 % private travel opportunities was astonishing.
Soon enough, the question of setting up a business in this part of the world was settled as a challenge, which was convincingly undertaken. The idea of creating a Congolese transportation services company was born. Just a few days after were being written the first words of the business plan for which had been solicited the help of already established actors of the transportation sector. Just under a year, the start of operations on the Butembo - Kisangani route was taking place.
Company’s management scrupulously followed its development strategy and was proud to present a viable, flexible and trustworthy company structure, witness of some of the valuable business skills acquired in the DRC.
This defying entrepreneurial experience was valuable in numerous respects. The DRC has the world’s second worst business climate, however for over two years and a half, with perseverance and continuity in the efforts engaged, the people and freight transportation company grew. War in the region in november 2012 has unfortunately rushed the end of this unparalleled human adventure.
Nowadays, the population of eastern Congo is determined to live in peace and prosperity. For that matter, it frequently claims its desire to live a life just as its Ugandans or Rwandans neighbours do - peacefully. During the 1st and 2nd rebellions, a lot of areas in eastern D.R.C were inaccessible given their militia-held control. The successive wars have created massive internal displacements of refugees that have left their land and relatives for more than a decade. For that reason, the Congolese population is eager to claim its right to regional mobility. Some families have been separated and they now want to reunify or at least visit their beloved relatives.
Furthermore, some border-cities such as Beni, Butembo or Bunia have largely benefited from their proximity with Uganda and in particular Entebbe Airport (Uganda); these last years, the import-export sector has grown exponentially for all types of goods. The rise of trade has attracted countless businessmen to these distant cities attracted by a high demand in price-competitive goods.
Witnessing the considerable advance of Uganda and Rwanda in infrastructures and coach travel in the ongoing of the 2010 project made clear at what point the DRC suffered of a cruel lack in public and private transports. Prolonged contacts with the Congolese and local administrations met at the time rendered obvious the cruel demand for any mean of transportation. The absence of other than 100 % private travel opportunities was astonishing.
Soon enough, the question of setting up a business in this part of the world was settled as a challenge, which was convincingly undertaken. The idea of creating a Congolese transportation services company was born. Just a few days after were being written the first words of the business plan for which had been solicited the help of already established actors of the transportation sector. Just under a year, the start of operations on the Butembo - Kisangani route was taking place.
Company’s management scrupulously followed its development strategy and was proud to present a viable, flexible and trustworthy company structure, witness of some of the valuable business skills acquired in the DRC.
This defying entrepreneurial experience was valuable in numerous respects. The DRC has the world’s second worst business climate, however for over two years and a half, with perseverance and continuity in the efforts engaged, the people and freight transportation company grew. War in the region in november 2012 has unfortunately rushed the end of this unparalleled human adventure.
Chapter 4 - Going down a river of life
With the Western media incurable epidemic of continually misrepresenting Africa, the continent has come to be shown as the culmination point of poverty - a place of chaos, danger and underdevelopment. Africa survives in our narratives as a daily consumption of misery and horror. A place we don’t really know but we don’t really want to bother with either. This manufactured idea has severely trivialised the complexity of the place as well as the human character of its people.
At the end of the 19th century was initiated, largely under the vision of Cecil Rhodes, the uncompleted « Cape to Cairo » railway construction project to cross Africa from south to north by rail. In addition to the major technological challenge that opposed the construction of this project, severe economic issues between the world wars precluded its completion. After World War II, the national struggles of the African peoples and the demise of colonialism removed the foundations for its completion. And while most sections of the « Cape to Cairo » railway are in operation, a major part was left missing between northern Sudan and southern Uganda.
However the concept of the mythic « Cape to Cairo » railway is not dead. While the current turmoil in Sudan is an obstacle for its completion, tangible concepts have been forwarded to complete the link between North Sudan and East Africa - for economic reasons…
With the Western media incurable epidemic of continually misrepresenting Africa, the continent has come to be shown as the culmination point of poverty - a place of chaos, danger and underdevelopment. Africa survives in our narratives as a daily consumption of misery and horror. A place we don’t really know but we don’t really want to bother with either. This manufactured idea has severely trivialised the complexity of the place as well as the human character of its people.
At the end of the 19th century was initiated, largely under the vision of Cecil Rhodes, the uncompleted « Cape to Cairo » railway construction project to cross Africa from south to north by rail. In addition to the major technological challenge that opposed the construction of this project, severe economic issues between the world wars precluded its completion. After World War II, the national struggles of the African peoples and the demise of colonialism removed the foundations for its completion. And while most sections of the « Cape to Cairo » railway are in operation, a major part was left missing between northern Sudan and southern Uganda.
However the concept of the mythic « Cape to Cairo » railway is not dead. While the current turmoil in Sudan is an obstacle for its completion, tangible concepts have been forwarded to complete the link between North Sudan and East Africa - for economic reasons…
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