Valerie Labi of Wahu Mobility says risk is not taken by investors to fund viable ideas because of lack of data. (Monocle – The Entrepreneurs – Issue 9 – 2025 pg 037) She reckons ‘There is a perception of risk when it comes to African markets because of lack of data. Because no one like…
Author: Mavia
The Microphone Paradox: Why More Voices Mean Less Truth – DP Mavia
In 2004, I was emailing ten-minute audio files to friends—WAV files converted to MP3s, crude knowledge attachments that probably clogged their inboxes. I’d also design newsletters, print them at my favorite cyber café, and distribute them like samizdat. It felt revolutionary. I was bypassing gatekeepers, creating my own distribution channel. Twenty years later, anyone with…
The Granary Principle: Why Storage Is the First Act of Hope
There’s a word in my mother tongue that I have been thinking about lately: chaage. It means granary. Not just any storage structure, but the specific kind where you keep seeds for tomorrow. What strikes me now, decades after hearing her use it, is what the word really represents: the radical act of believing the…
Nigeria: TikTok’s Cultural Dominance &Afrobeats’ Melody Revolution
TikTok has ascended from social media platform to Nigeria’s primary cultural engine, doubling its user base between 2024 and 2025 to become the country’s largest social platform, with 66% of young Nigerians (aged 18-34) using it regularly and an extraordinary 71% of those accessing it daily. The platform’s perceived authenticity—with 52% of users finding content…
The AI Likeness Challenge: The Good,The Bad, and The Ugly
In early 2026, AI-generated caricatures became the first viral trend of the year, flooding Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok with ChatGPT-created cartoons showing users surrounded by symbols of their professions. Users simply uploaded a photo and prompted ChatGPT to create a caricature based on everything it knew about them, generating exaggerated, personalized artwork that millions found…
Tyla’s Double Grammy Victory &The Rise of “Phygital” Media
South African music sensation Tyla made history at the 2026 Grammy Awards by becoming the first artist to win the Best African Music Performance category twice, following her 2024 win for “Water” with her 2026 victory for “Push 2 Start.” The win sparked a transformation in South African home entertainment, where Grammy viewing parties evolved…
Daniela Amodei on Studying Humanities
In an interview with ABC News that aired in early February 2026, Anthropic co-founder and president Daniela Amodei stated that studying the humanities will be “more important than ever” in the age of AI. Amodei, who majored in literature at UC Santa Cruz before working at Stripe and OpenAI, emphasized that when hiring at Anthropic,…
Suing Meta and Google for Internet Addiction
A landmark trial against social media giants Meta and Google’s YouTube began in January 2026 in Los Angeles Superior Court, marking the first of several high-profile cases that have drawn comparisons to lawsuits against Big Tobacco in the 1990s. The case centers on a 20-year-old identified as KGM, whose lawsuit claims that Meta’s Instagram and…
YouTube CEO on Content Creation in 2026
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan released his annual letter outlining priorities for 2026, positioning creators as the new entertainment industry and declaring that YouTube is the epicenter of culture. More than 1 million channels used YouTube’s AI creation tools daily in December, and the platform plans to introduce features allowing creators to make Shorts using their…
Trevor Noah’s African AI Optimism – AGI Outlook
What Now? with Trevor Noah podcast (Apple Podcasts, Spotify)In a February 2026 episode of the What Now? podcast, Emmy-nominated video journalist Cleo Abram joined Trevor Noah and Eugene to discuss her YouTube series “Huge If True,” which takes an optimistic approach to science and emerging technology. The conversation explored how asking “what could go right?”…









