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Last week something special happened in Tanzania. A moment in time. A jumping off point. (Say it softly…) a new future for Africa. The next chapter.

Over the past few years, a growing number of people in the TED community have become passionate about Africa, a continent that appears to be at an important tipping point. Its problems and challenges are well known. Less well known is that across the continent, change is afoot. Instead of relying only on development aid, Africans across the continent are beginning to take matters into their own hands. Ingenious solutions are being applied to tackle some of the toughest health and infrastructure problems. Businesses are being launched that are capable of transforming the lives of millions. New communication technologies are allowing ideas and information to spread, enabling markets — and governments — to be more efficient. And the numbers suggest that incomes are starting to nudge up in some countries and real growth is on the way. A new Africa beckons.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend TED’s second ever ‘Global’ conference. This time the focus was on the future of Africa and the setting was the lush mountains of northern Tanzania near the city of Arusha. The team at TED did what they seem to always do and produced an experience that exceeded the already high expectations (perhaps even their own!) The conference program was put together by Emeka Okafor; his blog - Timbuktu Chronicles - is a must read for anyone interested in African business and entrepreneurs.

One of the nice things about TED conferences, is that there is always a complete, rich and diverse conversation in the blogosphere reporting on, analyzing and extending the many presentations and conversations that happen at the conference, growing over time as the best presentations are released on TED Talks for the whole world to see. It doesn’t capture entirely the amazing energy that permeates the physical conference but nonetheless is a damn good consolation for interested people who didn’t have the opportunity to attend in person. For those of you that are interested, by searching for the tag - tedglobal2007 - on Technorati or other blog search engines, you will find a wealth of information, and in particular Ethan Zuckerman has written an amazingly complete and accurate blow-by-blow account.

Given this wealth of commentary and information out there, I just wanted to add a few thoughts on what I learned or (more precisely) what ideas I took away from Tanzania last week:

There is a new generation of young, intelligent and ambitious Africans that are determined to lead their countries and people to a better future, not through the bankrupt political and government institutions of the past but despite these institutions through enterprise, energy and talent.

There are a tremendous number of new and exciting business opportunities emerging all over the continent. The mobile telephony revolution is just the most visible of these; it is just the tip of the iceberg.

Perhaps the single most important missing element from the development equation is the lack of basic infrastructure: roads (transport), power (generation and distribution) and (internet) bandwidth. It’s not sexy but is nonetheless the foundation upon which a modern economy is built. Without basic infrastructure, efforts to improve health, education and productivity (especially in agriculture) will struggle to have any lasting impact.

There needs to be a greater focus on creating wealth (and I’m not talking about extracting rents from mineral and resource extraction in order to enrich some for some corrupt elite) rather than just reducing poverty. An important semantic distinction.

The debate around aid is complex; a dialog that recognizes this complexity and seeks to improve on the mistakes made in the past is to be welcomed. However, it seems clear that whatever the ‘right’ balance between aid and investment might be, there is currently insufficient private investment on the continent. Perhaps some component of western aid should be aligned to fostering (not subsidizing) more private investment, for example by mitigating the risks arising from the weak legal and institutional frameworks (as opposed to ‘business’ risk which is something that private capital is good at financing.)

To steal a line from JP, this is very much a provisional post - the beginning of a journey, not the certainty of the destination.

And if you want to listen to some of the ‘cheetahs’, here are links to a few of those I had the privilege to meet or hear speak at TED:

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