[richardw]

Pretty boring by African standards - born in Johannesburg, South Africa. Lived in various parts of the country, visited Zimbabwe, Tanzania (climbing Kilimanjaro), Mozambique (scuba diving), Lesotho (cycling trip). Taste of the kili trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/richard.watson/Kilimanjaro

South Africa has really transformed, but still a long way to go. I think the really interesting places are those that are emerging now. I've heard Ghana is fantastic - great people, very friendly.

[djb_hackernews]

I spent a few weeks last summer in Western Africa, mostly Burkina Faso, but did spend a week in Ghana. I understand it is the most stable in west Africa and growing the fastest but I, as a westerner coming from one of the top 10 or so poorest countries in the world(Burkina), didn't see as dramatic a difference in Ghana than I had expected. I unfortunately never made it to Accra.

[tlack]

How's the tech scene in South Africa? I would imagine it has its share of startups and investors, etc.

[richardw]

Development here is mostly focused around consuming & adding to technology - e.g. CRUD apps, although there is a small population of startups. Cape Town has the Silicon Cape initiative and there are a couple of incubators in other cities, e.g. http://www.theinnovationhub.com/

I have no idea how many developers-in-garages there are. I've watched the Business of Software forum, ASP and a couple others, but haven't sensed many other South Africans (or Africans). There is some interest in the social media area, like Afrigator.com and a few service-oriented companies. During the .com era, there was something called First Tuesday, which mirrored an overseas initiative of the same name. Meetups of ideas/money/services first Tuesday of every month.

In terms of bigger names...hmm. Alon Musk was born here but not sure when he left. Mark Shuttleworth started here. There's a make-a-site-easily company that is doing well but whose name I forget (edit: yola.com), and they're now in California.

Ah - here's an index: http://www.sastartupindex.co.za/

Maybe there's a startup idea in there :) /adds to list

[kilps]

There is some info at http://www.siliconcape.com/ (Cape Town focused).

[richardw]

I've known about it for ages, but assumed it was very CT-focused so only now really dug into the site and registered. It does look like the go-to place for local startupy types, thanks!