News — African social entrepreneurs

Generational wealth and bridging the racial wealth gap have been topics discussed heavily throughout the past year as a result of the protests over racial injustice. Since then, numerous organizations have made new pledges to do their part to help the Black community create more wealth for their families. One Black woman used her finance background to create a platform to teach Black consumers how to generate wealth through the stock market.

Tiffany James is the founder of the Modern Black Girl, a digital platform designed to help newcomers learn to use the stock market and other resources on wealth-building and managing a stock portfolio. James says she was inspired to start her business after learning about stocks in her free time driven by her curiosity and sought to create a platform where users can learn the basics.

“The stock market is 80% psychology 20% technical,” said James in an email interview. “Not only do you learn wealth-building tips and how to manage your money but you also learn patience, confidence, critical thinking skills, and leadership.”

James has also been using the audio social app Clubhouse to help provide resources and engaging panels through the app that has helped her reach a new audience.

“When Clubhouse started I would join the guy’s stock rooms and in most cases be the only women in the conversation,” she said. “After a few rooms with the guys, a lot of women begged me to start my own platform back in November. Three months later, we are here with over 94,000 members [who are] primarily women of color.”

The platform also hosts a Teen University for younger people to learn the basics about the stock markets in addition to classes for adults.

The stories of refugees pursuing economic ventures to contribute to the growth of their host country are replete in the literature. However, because of their status as refugees, their success stories are often not given attention in the media. In cases where stories of refugees are reported, they are often about their involvement in crimes and other social vices.

Despite the seeming lack of growing interest in the economic persuasion of refugees which leads to job creation, some of their success stories have attracted the world’s attention. One of such is Kanyi Maqubela, who migrated to the US with his family as refugees from South Africa.

The US remains one of the favorite destinations of refugees worldwide partly due to their refugee policies and their respect for human rights, although those were nearly wiped out during the Trump administration.

Kanyi arrived in the US at the height of the apartheid regime in South Africa. After living in debilitating conditions in his own country, he and his family felt migrating to the US will pay off for them. And as faith would have it, Kanyi has become a successful entrepreneur in the US and his parents got employed.

Kanyi co-founded Kindred Ventures with Steve Jang after successfully raising $56 million. Kindred Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital fund based in San Francisco, California. According to Shoppe Black, Kindred Ventures has invested in over 40 companies located in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. Previous Kindred Ventures investments count companies like Uber, Coinbase, and Virgin Hyperloop One.

Also, Kanyi recently raised $100 million in capital commitments from a mix of major university endowments, foundations, fund-of-funds, and strategic investors, according to Techcrunch.

Kanyi and Jang have served as founders, early employees, and advisors in several pioneering technology startups. Kanyi also served as a Partner at Collaborative Fund, where he was an early advisor to Tala and Walker & Co., and a board member at Buffer, Camino Financial, Spruce, and True Link, a post on Kindred Ventures’ website said.

In addition to co-founding Kindred Ventures, the Soweto born is also a co-founder of Heartbeat Health, a telehealth platform for cardiology that incorporates telemedicine, remote diagnostics, and digital heart health programs.

Indeed, Kanyi prides himself on founding the only virtual heart health app with video visits and at-home diagnostics. The app now has over 20,000 patients or subscribers as per its figures in 2019.

Despite making it in the US, Kanyi and his family’s story ‘in the land of freedom’ was not all rosy. They lived in a homeless shelter and were on food stamps until his mother got a job as an ESL teacher at Fashion Institute of Technology, and his father got a job as a cashier and coat checker at the Museum of Natural History, according to Shoppe Black.

Today, both parents are not only gainfully employed, but they are both accomplished educators while Kanyi did undergraduate and graduate studies at Stanford University, where he majored in Philosophy, and studied among others computer science, chemistry, physics, and mathematics.

He taught elementary and middle school math and science and claimed to have worked on Obama’s 2008 campaign team. “I really enjoyed being on the teaching team for Design Your Life, a class for undergraduates out of the Stanford Design Program,” he says on his website.

“We’re over-mentored and under-capitalized,” the venture capitalist told Bloomberg on why Black businesses need investment than activism. “I believe there’s an opportunity to use the acute national attention to catalyze structural change but it doesn’t happen on its own.”

Apple announced Wednesday that it will invest $10 million with Harlem Capital as part of their racial equity and justice pledge.

“The unfinished work of racial justice and equality call us all to account,” Apple CEO Tom Cook shared on Twitter. “Things must change, and Apple’s committed to being a force for that change.”

The investment is part of Apple’s $100 million racial equality and justice initiative announced last June. The program will be led by Apple VP Lisa Jackson.

“The initiative will challenge the systemic barriers to opportunity and dignity that exists for communities of color and particularly for the black community,” Apple CEO Tim Cook shared in a video.

Supporting Harlem Capital’s Vision

Apple’s $10 million investment in Harlem Capital will support investments in 1,000 companies with diverse entrepreneurs over the next two decades.

“Ever since I got my first iPod in middle school, I have been an avid Apple fan,” Managing Partner Henri Pierre-Jacques posted on LinkedIn. “To have Harlem Capital and Apple partner is truly a dream come true.”

Harlem Capital, a New York-based venture capital firm, will provide capital to entrepreneurs of color. The firm will also play an instrumental role in helping Apple achieve its broader economic advancement goals in under-resourced communities. Harlem Capital will serve as mentors in Apple’s first Detroit Developer Academy — a program designed to empower young Black entrepreneurs will the skills needed to be proficient in the iOS app economy.

In addition, Harlem Capital will provide support to participants in Apple’s Entrepreneur Camp. This week-long program offers lab sessions, one-on-one expert guidance, and insights from top Apple leaders. At the conclusion of the program, participants join a global network of other leaders.

Furthermore, Apple plans to support Harlem Capital’s internship program. This competitive internship opportunity has attracted thousands of applicants and provided experiences to over 50 interns.

It All Started With A Passion

Founded in 2015, Harlem Capital is a venture capital firm on a mission to change the face of entrepreneurship. The company started with Managing Partners Henri Pierre-Jacques and Jarrid Tingle. The two met as participants in the Management Leadership for Tomorrow career program founded by John Rice.

Once they discovered a shared passion for investing, the two men connected with other friends and formed Harlem Capital in Tingle’s living room. Brandon Bryant and John Henry are also part of the dream team. Now, the venture capital firm is on track to help a new generation of entrepreneurs create change.

“Never underestimate the power of words and visualizing,” Pierre-Jacques shared on LinkedIn.

Most kids like to enjoy a bowl of cereal in the morning for breakfast. For one Black male entrepreneur, his love of the treat inspired him to develop his own brand of cereal dedicated to offering more representation of Black culture for youth.

Connecticut-based Nic King is the owner of Proud Puff Cereal, a vegan-friendly cereal featuring characters representing various aspects of African American culture. He came up with the idea in the middle of the night and said the idea behind the box design was to offer a positive representation of a Black family and household with his characters.

“I was sitting up in my bed and pulled out my phone and started scrolling in my phone seeing all these scenes from Minneapolis. And seeing a lot of companies talking about their initiatives involving Black creatives and going forward to help out the Black community,” King said in an interview with The Darien (CT) Times. 

 “The whole box has meaning, from the characters to a two-parent Black household, to the positive affirmations on the back of the box, as well as the facts on the side about iconic Black legends that helped shape our culture”

King revealed on his Instagram page that he has already received 1,000 pre-orders for his cereal and shared the company’s progress toward mass production. This brings the total to 4,000 since the new year began. He explained that he is looking for a larger crowdfunding platform to raise funds to grow his products and capital to produce large quantities for customers.

“In today’s climate, I believe a product like this is so important. We’ve been dealing with blatant racism, why Black Lives Matter Too, Diversity Inclusion, Systemic racism and so much more,” King writes on his website. “This cereal isn’t only for black people but rather it is a cereal owned by a black man. This is a cereal any and all families can enjoy as they start their morning on a journey to having a great day.”

South African-born entrepreneur Elon Musk has seen his fortune rise to $195 billion, making him the richest man on earth, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Until Thursday, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was the richest man in the world with a net worth of $185 billion.

The Space X and Tesla founder was pushed to the top spot after shares in Tesla rose by more than 6 percent on Thursday. Since the start of 2020, Tesla’s capitalization has grown from $80 billion in January 2020 to just over $760 billion as of Thursday, according to NBC News, while his personal fortune rose by more than $150 billion last year.

The new evaluation is more than eight times the combined values of the traditional “Big Three” U.S. automakers — GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler, NBC added.

“How strange,” Musk tweeted Thursday. “Well, back to work …”

“Musk’s wealth surge over the past year marks the fastest rise to the top of the rich list in history — and is a dramatic financial turnaround for the famed entrepreneur, who just 18 months ago was in the headlines for Tesla’s rapid cash burn and his personal leverage against the company’s stock,” CNBC wrote. “Tesla’s rocketing share price — which has increased more than ninefold over the past year — along with his generous pay package have added more than $150 billion to his net worth.”

Musk started 2020 worth about $27 billion and was not among the top 50 richest list. However, he passed Warren Buffett to become the seventh-richest person in July. He gained more wealth than Bill Gates to become the second-richest person in November and has since gained more wealth over the past 12 months than Gates’ entire net worth of $132 billion, according to CNBC.

While Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index ranks Musk as the richest man in the world, Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires lists Bezos ahead of him. Bezos tops Forbes’ list with $184 billion while Musk comes in second with $177.2 billion.

However, according to CNBC, Forbes evaluation did not include the value of Musk’s options, which he received as part of his pay package, to buy more than 33 million shares of Tesla.

Last year, Musk’s Space X launched two crewed missions to the International Space Station, the first of it in the U.S. since NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011, according to space.com. In all, Space X launched 26 missions in 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic not only disproportionally affected Black-owned businesses, but it has also delayed the opening of many companies led by Black people.

In the midst of all the uncertainties in the business world, particularly over concerns whether existing and new businesses could make a profit, three Kentucky brothers have defied all odds in a pandemic era to roll out their own distillery.

Known as Brough Brothers Distillery, it is the first and only Black-owned distillery in the state of Kentucky. It was founded by brothers Victor, Bryson, and Christian Yarbrough who were born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. Their ambition was fueled by their desire to operate a Black-led distillery in a sector that has been widely dominated by Whites. Their distillery will provide job opportunities and economic growth for the community of Park Hill, a historically underserved area of Louisville’s West End, according to a press release announcing the commencement of operation of Brough Brothers Distillery.

“Brough Brothers has an opportunity to not only provide employment opportunities for our local community but also design an experience for locals and tourists in the heart of one of Kentucky’s cultural hubs,” Brough Brothers CEO Victor Yarbrough said. “At a time in history when there is much attention on Louisville, we are excited to represent positive change and hope for and on behalf of our city.”

Currently, Chris and Bryson serve as the company’s chief marketing officer and chief operating officer, respectively.

The Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau first approved Brough Brothers Distillery in August 2018 and was recognized by Kentucky’s Senate as the state’s first African American-owned distillery in August 2020. It was subsequently approved by the Kentucky Alcoholic Beverage Control Board in September.

Meanwhile, its bourbon shop will be open for business to bourbon enthusiasts by appointment only in spring 2021. So far, customers have praised the product for being one of the smoothest on the market.

“I hope people are able to come to the West End and see a rose in the concrete, and are able to see there’s beauty there, there’s people willing to improve the community there, and we would like to see other businesses come in, as well as tourists and other supporters, to not just support our business, but surrounding businesses in the area,” CEO Yarbrough said in an interview.

Brough Brothers currently has major distribution partnerships in five states, including KY, FL, TN, IN, and CO. It will expand its distribution to another 20 states in early 2021, the release said.

In many countries, the gig economy remains largely informal and workers take a salary outside the formal banking system. Reading a 2016 report prepared by McKinsey on the Global Independent Workforce also known as the Gig Economy, Craig J. Lewis noticed that no one was servicing the firms that pay these workers.

He, therefore, set out to design a payroll system for the gig economy. He established Gig Wage not only to provide a platform that can be used to service the salaries of workers in the gig economy but to get everyone involved.

According to Bloomberg, the problem of under banking is urgent for Black people, who make up 35 percent of the statistic, against only 11 percent of White people.

Founded in 2015, Wage Gig provides the technology and the tools businesses need to pay gig workers, freelancers or contractors in a fast, flexible, and modern way, Lewis tells Shoppe Black. “Also by having 1099 specific software helps with classification concerns,” he adds.

On its website, the Dallas-based company says “our technology enables the world’s innovators to instantly pay 1099 workers with more control, flexibility & scale.”

The company recently made headlines when it raised a $7.5 million Series A round to boost its platform. The funding raising was led by Green Dot Corp., a California-based financial technology and bank holding company.

The deal also goes beyond just investment as Green Dot will also serve as an infrastructure bank partner to Gig Wage to deliver modern banking solutions and better financial tools to the Gig Economy.

“The 1099 economy is exploding, and Gig Wage is thrilled to bring a truly comprehensive solution to market,” Lewis says in a statement on Medium. “As we laid the foundation to offer financial infrastructure for the ‘Future of Work,’ it was abundantly clear Green Dot was the best partner for us to help the most people.”

Despite the effect of COVID-19 on Black-led businesses, the positive news for Lewis is that the pandemic has seen his firm grow due to rising demand for its services.

“The Gig Economy was rapidly expanding and Gig Wage was growing really fast pre COVID but COVID19 has definitely been an accelerant. The increased need for delivery has been the main area of growth we’ve seen,” he says.

Lewis is an expert in the payroll space. He started as a salesman for ADP small business payroll products in 2008 before realizing his passion for payroll tech. After selling over $10 million in payroll-related software, he landed in Silicon Valley, where he got to know the fundamentals of starting a company.

“I was just awed how they thought about technology and products and company building,” Lewis was quoted by deBanked. “And I vowed to bring that to the payroll industry.”

White billionaires have doubled in America in the past quarter-century, according to the Washington Post. This reflects the widening economic gulf and racial disparity as the percentage of Blacks and other minority households worth more than $1 million remains below 2% since 1992.

The trend of Whites accumulating wealth is set to continue and will continue to outperform Blacks and Hispanics in key indicators of wealth: homeownership and equity, investments, and inheritance, according to data cited by the Washington Post.

On the corporate ladder, Black CEOs make up less than one percent of Fortune 500 CEOs and around three percent in senior management positions, a report by the Center for Talent Innovation said. Brian Lee, a digital ad executive, wants to change that by offering a platform that aims at increasing the number of Black millionaires in the next decade.

Lee is the founder of Black Health & Wealth and has a passion for entrepreneurship and healthy living. He’s responsible for digital advertising campaigns for some of the largest brands in the United States. Black Health & Wealth was created to amplify Black wealth and economic opportunity and in the process, create more Black millionaires.

One of the ways of achieving this is to partner corporate institutions to commit to their diversity policy, Lee said. “There has been a lot of talk from corporate America about standing with the black community, but now it is time for action. Black professionals would like to see investment directly into black talent and black suppliers. They also want professional development and to see diverse people in company board seats and in the C-Suite,” the business executive was quoted by Black Business.

As a seasoned ad executive, Lee has worked for renowned brands like Verizon, Microsoft, and many more. Black Health & Wealth was inspired by his own struggles through the corporate ladder. Coming from a humble background, he aspires to create one million Black millionaires in the next 10 years thereby creating a modern-day Black Wall Street.

He however believes that building Black Wall Streets globally will start with a digital approach, hence his platform is “building the technology” to power communities.

In effect, Lee’s plan to increase the number of Black millionaires will be executed in two phases. The first phase will see Lee provide education and professional development to professionals within the network while phase two will centralize Black businesses to have access to each other while committing major corporations to their diversity policies, according to We Buy Black.

Pharrell Williams has launched a new initiative to empower Black and Latinx entrepreneurs. Dubbed Black Ambition, the non-profit initiative seeks to provide a bridge to success for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs who are launching tech, design, healthcare, and consumer products/services start-ups.

Williams, who is widely known for his hit song Happy, said at a virtual conference that the inspiration behind the initiative is to give voice to underserved communities. Also, the long term goal of the initiative is to make entrepreneurship a norm in underserved communities.

According to one study, racism and lack of investment in Black communities have cost the U.S economy $16 trillion. The study also said if the investment were made in black communities, the U.S economy will grow by 5 trillion in the next five years.

“We need a voice,” Williams said.” We have the smallest slice of the American pie, in terms of ownership. The Asian dollar stays in this community for about 30 days; our Jewish brothers and sisters, their dollar stays in every community for 20 days. The African-American dollar stays in its community for six hours, because we don’t own much.”

The Grammy-winning artist and producer announced two prize competitions as part of the launch– The Black Ambition HBCU Prize and The Black Ambition Prize– which will culminate in one major national event to be held in July 2021. The competing teams will compete for these prizes by presenting to luminary judges and investors.

“Recent events and tragedies have illustrated the always existent stark divisions in the American experience, and while entrepreneurship has long been a tenet of the American dream, marginalized people have faced long-standing barriers to success,” a statement from Williams said.

“With Black Ambition, the goal is to help strengthen the pipeline of talented entrepreneurs and close the opportunity and wealth gaps derived from limited access to capital and resources.”

The Black Ambition HBCU prize will offer prizes and mentorship for current and former students at HBCUs as they develop seed or early-stage ideas and launch companies in tech, design, healthcare, and consumer products and services. The grand prize winner will receive up to a $250,000 prize and at least nine additional teams will receive smaller prizes.

The Black Ambition prize, on the other hand, will find, support, and seed early-stage companies in tech, design, healthcare, and consumer products and services.

Ventures must have at least one founder or co-founder that identifies as Black/African/African-American and/or Hispanic/Latino/a/Latinx. The grand prize winner will receive up to a $1 million prize and at least nine additional teams will receive smaller prizes.

A senior advisor for Black Ambition and partner at Bridgespan, Willa Seldon, notes that the initiative also aims to highlight the fact that there is a huge market opportunity. According to him, in 2019, Black and Latinx folks spent $3 trillion in the marketplace. “That’s a market that’s worth investing,” he said.

The Black Ambition has raised funding from Adidas, Chanel, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, The Rockefeller Foundation, Tony’s Chocolonely, and the Visa Foundation. Also, applicants who apply for Black Ambition will gain access to Betaworks studios, a startup and seed-stage company focused on early consumer-facing companies.

Here’s a thought-provoking statistic: A whopping $290 billion would be created in Black wealth if the revenue gap between what Black-owned and white-owned businesses generate were equal.

That discovery came from building supportive ecosystems for Black-owned U.S. businesses, a fresh report from management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. reveals. The research showcases the hurdle Black entrepreneurs face and provides answers that the public, private, and social sectors can implement for equitable and positive business outcomes.

The report notes the right business ecosystems can mitigate or negate the effects of structural obstacles to the business building for Black business owners, adding $290 billion in business equity. The report released in late October found entrepreneurship and business ownership — particularly of community-based businesses— are crucial ways to develop community wealth for both business owners and their employees. Further, healthy Black-owned businesses could be an essential way for closing America’s racial wealth gap, which is projected to cost the economy $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion annually by 2028.

The COVID-19 crisis has further stressed Black-owned businesses and threatens to widen the racial wealth gap. This gap includes a $200 billion revenue opportunity that Black business owners are missing out on if they were to achieve revenue parity with white-owned businesses, translating to lost wealth and up to 850,000 jobs through 2021 due to increased liquidity constraints.

Asked what were among the report’s most stunning findings, McKinsey associate partner John-Paul Julien said “our report states that while nearly 20 percent of the 12.3 million women-owned businesses in the U.S. are owned by Black women, Black women experience significant economic and institutional barriers due to their race and gender.” For example, Black women are disproportionately shut out of venture capital funding, which can rapidly fuel business growth. Women of color receive less than 0.2 percent of VC funding, and at 4 percent of funded U.S. start-ups, Black women founders are underrepresented and underfunded. Indeed, the average Black woman-led start-up that received funding raised only $42,000.

The McKinsey report also offered some potential solutions to help create more economic parity for Black-owned businesses:

Apply policies that produce equitable outcomes

The public, private, and social sectors can help remove institutional barriers for Black-owned businesses and ensure laws, policies, and practices produce equitable opportunities and outcomes. For instance, procurement practices, especially at anchor institutions and large organizations, can evolve to be more inclusive of Black-owned businesses. Along with dedicating funds to procurement from Black-owned businesses, large organizations could simplify their minority-supplier certification processes to add new suppliers more quickly and dedicate funding to supplier-development programs that can help Black-owned suppliers better participate in supply chains.

Provide equitable access to capital

To help overcome economic barriers, Black-owned small businesses (SMBs) need direct investment or equity contributions, including grants, subsidies, loans, and revenue-participation agreements. Direct investment is especially key during COVID-19. McKinsey’s analysis suggests that an additional $7.6 billion to $15.4 billion in liquidity for Black-owned SMBs in the 2020-21 time frame — less than 3 percent of the $659 billion authorized under the Paycheck Protection Program — could preserve 460,000 to 815,000 jobs, for an average of $9,325 to $33,478 per job. Funding sources are also needed for Black entrepreneurs starting up or expanding. Banks, conventional and social impact investors, foundations, and public programs could make more capital available to Black-owned businesses. Possible programs include ones that make extending capital to Black-owned businesses less risky through measures such as guaranteeing funds and programs that help entrepreneurs from marginalized backgrounds acquire more capabilities.

Build business capabilities and facilitate knowledge sharing

To conquer market barriers, Black-owned SMBs need support for building capabilities and sharing a greater amount of knowledge. The private and social sectors — particularly anchor institutions — could provide resources. That could include offering help with reskilling and upskilling Black-owned businesses’ workers to make Black-owned SMBs nimbler. Many Black-owned businesses lack the resources to hire service providers that can help them digitize their businesses, but private-sector and social-sector organizations can provide free technology services and managerial assistance.

Expand opportunities for mentorship and sponsorship

Representation and participation in networking, mentorship, and sponsorship programs can help Black entrepreneurs overcome some sociocultural barriers. Private companies should take the lead by building more inclusive teams. Further, managers at every level should consciously develop — and sponsor the careers of — more Black leaders to counteract the effects of structural bias. Indeed, only about 3 percent of current Fortune 100 company CEOs are Black, and fewer than 4 percent of those oversee departments’ profit and loss functions. Those that tend to accelerate career progression for Blacks. Moreover, unconscious bias can affect mentorship and sponsorship, because humans tend to gravitate toward mentoring people they view as similar to themselves.

Community programs can help Black entrepreneurs connect with role models and commercial networks that can help Black prospective entrepreneurs pursue business ownership with more confidence and support. For instance, the private and social sectors could facilitate networking and partnerships between established businesses and compatible start-ups.

An investment in more business ecosystems that provide Black business owners equitable access to resources and opportunities can unlock part of the $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion in annual GDP that would come from closing the racial wealth gap, the report surmises. It adds, more importantly, by making social and economic institutions supportive of a wider swath of people, stakeholders can rectify the mistrust that has developed between Black entrepreneurs and institutions.

William Michael Cunningham, an economist who runs Creative Investment Research, had mixed reactions to some of the findings in the McKinsey report. He told via email a statement in the report that “Black Americans have never had an equal ability to reap the benefits of business ownership” is correct. But Cunningham maintains that Black businesses have continued to survive and innovate in what must be considered one of the most hostile environments for Black people on earth.

“The system of white supremacy that relies on the theft of resources from Black people has severed to limit the ability of Black business owners to fully reap the benefit from their labors.”

Cunningham added the report errs in several ways. For example, he says, Black-owned businesses don’t earn lower revenues and are overrepresented in low-growth, low-revenue industries such as food service and accommodations because they want to perform poorly.

“A reluctance to use Black-owned firms outside of these industries leads to overrepresentation,” Cunningham says. “They are limited to those fields. One policy prescription is to put into place a set of government policies to eliminate these barriers.”

A huge debate on the regulation of social media has come up recently, following recent chaos that came after the #ENDSARS protest. Once more, people are arguing whether social media spaces should remain avenues of free expression or whether it’s time for the government to step into this space. However, many have overlooked the more important question of why we need social media even in political turmoil.

For a movement which pulled as much weight as that of #ENDSARS, mainstream media was mostly ineffective in following it leading to social media being at the forefront of covering the movement. This raises the question of how important social media and freedom of expression have become to individual liberty. 

From a hashtag on Twitter, the movement grew with young people around the country sharing their stories of police brutality which led to the realization of the enormity of the problem and then to a call to action. While mainstream media was slowly catching up to the magnitude of this movement, social media users made it trend and also ensured it attracted an audience both locally and internationally, drawing attention to the plight of young Nigerians. 

The human rights abuses against protesters were mostly documented by private individuals and shared on social media. Many of these events were not covered by mainstream media. The live video of the Lekki Massacre which was watched by over 150,000 people serves as infallible proof of the event which has otherwise been consistently denied. Despite the fact that the chaos that ensued cannot be directly blamed on social media interactions, social media has become the scapegoat in Nigerians’ quest for a return to sanity and safety. 

This important help social media provided comes barely a year after the uproar surrounding the social media bill and reaffirms why the bill had to be resisted and why any attempt to bring it up again must be vociferously challenged. The question of whether the movement would have gathered as much traction as it did or whether the human rights violations committed during this period would have been covered up if social media was being regulated by the government now has a clear answer.  

The government’s obvious attempts at covering up these events—the denials, terming it fake news, the persecution of protesters—freezing of their bank accounts, terming them threats to the nation and the fact that many of the key figures in the protests have had to flee the country for their lives is proof that we can’t trust this same government with control over what we can and cannot share on social media.

One may be tempted to acquiesce to some sort of regulation to prevent fake news or hate speech especially in these volatile times, however, a clampdown on free speech doesn’t always end at the extremities regulators claim they’re trying to prevent. A good example is the cancel culture that’s slowly growing around the world and on social media. At first, it started with hate and violent speech but has moved on to target conspiracy theories and speech deemed politically and socially incorrect or offensive.

The media has always been at the forefront of the struggle for liberty in whatever form it has taken over the years. There is no doubt that social media is a new and powerful tool for advocating freedom and if we are to diligently guard our liberty, we must also diligently guard freedom of expression and in particular, our freedom to use social media even for those whose words we dislike. We mustn’t forget so soon after, the role social media has played in exposing the failures of the government.

Even though things might be scary in these times, Nigerians should be careful of making the very common mistake of trading safety for freedom. While the government taking charge might give a facade of calm and sanity, greater dangers to liberty and even safety can arise from there.