{UAH} Young, rich and African: the Cheetah Generation | smh.com.au

As rags to riches stories go, Dennis Makori's is a doozy. He didn't flick a light switch until he was 13 or touch a computer keyboard until his early 20s. But at the age of 34, the self-taught Kenyan programmer is a tech-millionaire. 

Makori is an exemplar of what Ghanaian economist George Ayittey calls Africa's "Cheetah Generation": a cohort of young, business-savvy change-makers defying the continent's stereotypes of hunger and war. 

He contrasts the Cheetahs with Africa's "Hippo Generation" - political elites born in the 1950s and '60s who are reluctant to jettison the state-centred policies that have marked Africa's post-colonial development. 

He claims this "stodgy, pudgy" cohort of leaders is hampering the continent's progress. "We've been trying to reform Africa for a long time, but the ruling elites are just not interested in changing their economic and political systems," says Ayittey. "They are laggards and they are always dragging their feet. We have a real contrast between the two - the Hippos and the Cheetahs."

http://m.smh.com.au/good-weekend/young-rich-and-african-the-cheetah-generation-20150306-11m5bp.html

Brian M. Kwesiga

President and CEO,

Ugandan North American Association - UNAA

972.415.6372 | www.unaa.org | "United We Stand"