I've been reflecting on my intense hustle days as a freelance designer and some of the gigs I used to take on.
I remember how as a freelancer, I could land certain projects, but then when I temporarily joined an agency, I saw how they could negotiate much higher prices for the same work. In fact, the agency would often charge close to 5 times what I could as a freelancer, yet they'd just pass the entire project to me to complete!
Back then, I felt it was incredibly unfair and that I was being cheated. I constantly questioned why an agency could command such higher fees for the same deliverables, even if the freelancer could produce better results. But as I reflected recently I opted to ask ChatGPT, because why not? And here’s what it said:
Agencies represent a larger pool of resources, skills, and personnel. There's a perception of reduced risk and greater reliability when hiring an established agency versus a single freelancer. Clients are willing to pay a premium for the confidence an agency's reputation, infrastructure, and ability to scale up resources as needed provides. An agency's brand name and collective experience also allow them to charge more.
And that's when it hit me - this perfectly explains Africa's problem.
Africa is a continent of close to 1.5 billion people. 1.5 billion people with flesh and blood - capable of providing incredible value to the world at large. Yet, I find it ironic that we consider ourselves as small. It doesn’t even occur to us that we are a collective group that large.
Although the outside world erroneously considers us to be one lump group, we consider ourselves to be completely different. I mean the more I reflect the more I realize that I see myself more closely related in ideology to an American than to say a Congolese - and that is an unfortunate reality. A problem, in fact.
I have spent my whole life getting pissed at people who consider the continent as one lump body without differences and I have at all times rejected this notion. In my mind, “no, we’re not one, we’re different groups”. Now believe that it is something we can use to our advantage. That the outside world considers us one is a good thing. We are all in this together.
The rise and fall of Sudan should be of deep concern to me in Kasoa, Ghana. We consider Europe one body and may not even care about Moldova. Have you even heard about Moldova before? We may have our differences, in fact we do have our differences. But 1.5 billion people taking a single stance are a force to reckon with.
Ghana, with 33 million people, may be considered a small country, but just picture this. The AU, functioning properly, negotiating on behalf of Ghana, Tanzania, Eswatini and the likes with the backing of 1.5 billion people!
There’s no way we won’t get value for money.
If African nations united under the AU with one voice, we could leverage that same dynamic - using our continental reputation and 1.5 billion population as credibility to secure the best possible terms on the global stage. Just like a design agency. That is what Nkrumah saw. That is what he preached.
And that is, perhaps, what he died for!
So henceforth, I don’t think I will be correcting anyone who asks me if I know someone who traveled to Kenya. And yes, I wake up sleeping by lions, baby. In fact Mufasa was my grandfather’s pet. That’s on the lighter note though.
