Leaving Home Wasn’t Easy But It Sure Is A Blessing
I will be 42 on 30th December, and I’m originally from Ghana, West Africa and a journalist by profession. Growing up my interest always centered on helping my country and continent to find a path to prosperity.
By the time I turned 20, I had read many books from Karl Max, Vladimir Lenin, Friedrich Engels, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere and many Socialist and communist thought leaders. These men shaped my ideology and philosophy for life.
In my teens, Africa was characterized by bloodshed. After high school in 1996, I founded the Africa Youth Peace Call, a socialist-oriented organization to help young people become self-sufficient and productive citizens while promoting peace and intercultural relations.
We wanted to see a shift from Africa’s image as a continent of poor people, killing and maiming each other. That is to build a new Africa that aspires to achieve great things, especially in science and technology.
I had no trust in the state/political apparatus but naively thought we could get the right people into power who could take us to the economic Jerusalem/Mecca of our heart desire. All this changed in less than a decade.
Converting To Free Markets
In 2003, I was one of Ghana’s two delegates to the first Africa Youth Parliament in Nairobi where I met a young woman called June Arunga who gave me a book written by Lord Ludwig Von Mises — Economic Thought For Today And Tomorrow.
As an avid reader, I read the book passionately after the event. To be candid, I love what was in that fabulous book but still couldn’t connect with it and had cobwebs all over my mind.
Later in the year at a conference organised by the IREN-Kenya at Elimentaita Lake Lodge, Nakuru, Kenya, I was shocked to the marrow that all these years my political philosophy was basically what seemed to make Africa more miserable. That moment was witnessing a discourse over the competition and inefficiency in the telco industry in Africa.
I had flashbacks of my experience of traveling 200 KM with my mom when I was a boy before we could make IDD calls. More, the several months it took the state monopolized Telecom company to get a landline telephone to homes after an application. A direct result of the geopolitical state.
In a nutshell, my philosophy for life shifted entirely, and I became an ardent believer and advocate of free markets. So did Africa Youth Peace Call. A couple of years later I won the 1st prize of the Mont Pelerin Society Essay Competition for Africans under 30 using the telco liberalization discourse and my experience.
In the following years, I worked with organizations like the International Society for Individual Liberty, Heritage Foundation, Foundation for Economic Education, Atlas Network among others to promote and foster liberty and prosperity in Africa.
It is in the course of my work for liberty that a friend named George Donnelly introduced me to the Blockchain/Bitcoin in 2011. It became one of the modules of my flagship program for the Liberty and Entrepreneurship Camp which targeted college students.
Across Africa With Bitcoin
In 2016, down and out and facing political threats at home, I left my native Ghana in the hope of backpacking across the continent. Another Libertarian Friend, Joel Venezuela aka Desert Lynx introduce me to the editor of the Cointelegraph (CT), Cyril Gilson, who became a father figure to me.
Cyril gave me the opportunity to write for CT. That’s when the idea to tour Africa promoting Blockchain technologies and its communities hit me.
For almost three years, I’ve travelled to 18 countries and seen Africa at closer quarters, not from five-star hotels. I’ve lived on Crypto throughout (from my earnings from writing and promoting and representing Blockchain projects).
Merchant adoption is not picking up yet in Africa; therefore, you can’t go far with Bitcoin. South Africa is the only country where there are thousands of merchants accepting Crypto. Any merchant that accepts Payfast in that country can also accept Crypto.
Where there are no Crypto Exchange, I’ve relied on Crypto Virtual and physical Cards. There are so many instances where I had to send Bitcoin to friends abroad to send me fiat via Western Union and Moneygram.
It’s tough
I’ve slept at bus stops when I was broke and been thrown out of Airbnb as well as sleeping on empty stomachs in the early days.
I remember bullets flying over the roofs of the hotel I was staying for a week in Southern Cameroun in October 2017. I’ve arrived to train young people on Cryptocurrency and entrepreneurship at the time the Amazonia Secessionists had declared Independence.
My life isn’t fun, but I’m grateful to Satoshi Nakamoto.
Pitstop: Zimbabwe
Along the way, I ended up making Zimbabwe my base and stayed there for a year and a half while traveling across the continent. This decision stemmed from two reasons:
(a) It is visa-free for the passport I have, and the country has no currency of its own, and I can easily use Crypto or convert to mobile money since many Zimbabweans rely on Bitcoin to import a lot of stuff.
(b) I set up the Africa Blockchain University in Zimbabwe to assist young Africans to do a better job of understanding Blockchain technologies and leveraging it to escape poverty.
However, I was bitten once again.
In May 2018, just a month of launching an exchange platform, the government banned Cryptocurrency Exchanges and froze our bank accounts.
I then left for Rwanda.
My Horrible Experience with Africa’s Visa Regime
I paid $150 for a Botswana business visa after waiting for three weeks, $120 for Cameroun and three visits to Lagos where the nearest embassy is, $50 on arrival in Zambia among others. Ethiopia once shipped me back to Kenya when I was refused a visa on arrival.
This experience has made me stronger and taught me how to cross-border, go through immigration and deal with bureaucrats in Africa. It has also reinforced my conviction in getting a second passport that allows free entry to many countries. Maybe when my daughters are older they would not have to bother with this because borders may not exist.
Finding My Inner Strength
I now live a nomadic life through Africa, surviving and making a living from my PC. I enormously appreciate the outstanding generosity of many men and women, who have supported me throughout this journey.
This is the biggest thing I’ve ever done in my life aside to having two beautiful daughters. Maybe someday, I’ll find a home in one of the numerous countries in Africa so that they could join me and we can be a family again since I doubt that I will live in the country of my birth again.
So far, I’ve written for Blockchain news blogs like Cointelegrapgh, CCN, Bitcoin News, Coin World Story, Krypto Money and couple others all on the road. Currently, I run my news blog — qbittimes.com.
As I write, I’m in Mauritius, a beautiful Indian Ocean archipelago Island where I’m doing a fellowship with Ducorp’s X-team surrounded by so much love. I intend to spend two or three months to interact with the Blockchain Community here but who knows tomorrow.
Leaving my comfort zone was the hardest thing. However, I’m glad I cast away those chains and became a crypto vagabond.
An Excerpt from my soon to be released book, Across Africa With Bitcoin.
Twitter: @CryptoTraveler1
