MAKING is cultural atavism
Why the maker movement belongs in Rwanda
Making isn’t new. There is nothing revolutionary about people making tools to solve problems or reduce the financial and technical barriers to produce other tools. It’s what separates us from the beasts.
So why have we coined a movement around a verb that defines our species? Because, many people in developed economies—through generations of iterative economic specialization, monopolization, and consumerization—have become separated from the factors of production.
When you want furniture, you can order online from Ikea. In the post-food era, when you want sustenance you can open up a jar of Soylent “food supplement” that is delivered to your door. Ready-to-consume has become the default.
That may not sound profound; but, follow that trend to its conclusion and there would be no evolutionary incentive to maintain a vocabulary that expresses the nuance between non-composite woods or seeded fruits.
People who are educated and multi-talented and problem-solving belong to the past (we chauvinistically call such people “Renaissance men”), so what does the future hold?
In the West, the Maker Movement is a counter-culture. Makers are fighting the march towards dependency and consumerism.
In Rwanda, however, making is the national doctrine: self-reliance, innovation, learning-by-doing, building, breaking, borrowing, upcycling, evolving…
Next month we will remember the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide. In the intervening years since one of the most destructive 100-days in human history, Rwanda has built and re-built everything from government institutions to infrastructure to public trust to food production.
When I was moving back to Kigali from London in 2012, a Swiss friend told me: “In a place like London you consume your experiences, but in Kigali you create them.” It’s true. In Rwanda, we are all Makers.
Rwanda is a small land-locked country in the centre of Africa, so imports are expensive. But, making is not just about substituting cheap ready-to-consume retail. In Rwanda, making is the cultural direction: we are all united behind a national ambition to build solutions. Rwanda has reduced poverty at a rate faster than anywhere in the history of the world outside of East Asia, because communities are empowered to own the development agenda.
At The Office, Kigali’s cluster of innovation hubs, we have made everything except the chairs: walls, tables, light fixtures, art installations. As a community we’re also making the non-physical: we’re building community, supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and we’re increasing the rate of innovation by accelerating serendipity.
At the end of 2015 we will convert our open roof terrace (that has hosted TEDx events, salsa lessons, and the Rwandan Film Festival to name a few) into a community innovation centre, a maker space, and a cafe. Everything in the space will be built by Kigali’s community of makers.
The possibilities to make are limited only by will and imagination. So if you want to teach, learn, or make something amazing that changes people’s lives, join the movement in Kigali!
