Segment: Stop Waiting for Africa to Look Good - Own Your Story or Watch Others Write It.

Summary

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Konnected Minds Podcast

Segment: Stop Waiting for Africa to Look Good - Own Your Story or Watch Others Write It

Host: Derrick Abaitey
Date: January 11, 2026

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Overview

In this insightful episode of the Konnected Minds Podcast, host Derrick Abaitey leads a transformative discussion around the power of storytelling in shaping Africa’s global narrative, the importance of owning one’s story, and practical advice for young Africans pursuing wealth and success. The episode dives into the role of media portrayals, personal mindset shifts, the necessity of reading and continuous learning, and adapting to technological advances like AI in the African context.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power of Narrative and Media Portrayal

• Contrast in Storytelling Techniques

  • Hollywood’s depiction of Africa and other regions often uses visual cues (e.g., “brownish” screen filters) to subconsciously paint them as dangerous or undesirable compared to the luxurious portrayals of Western cities.
  • Quote (A, 00:00):
    “When they want to show… the military… go into somewhere in Africa… the HD resolution of the screen comes down, it becomes brownish in color. Psychologically, it’s telling us that it's not a place to go to.”

• Implications for Self-Image and External Perception

  • The way African stories are told is often controlled by non-African entities, furthering stereotypes. There’s a need for Africans to reclaim the narrative and highlight their continent’s beauty and development.

• Joint Responsibility: Government and Citizens

  • Positive storytelling isn’t solely the responsibility of individuals; governments must create environments worth showcasing.
  • Quote (A, 01:22):
    “It’s a joint effort. The government provides the basic needs… and the society will tell the story.”

• Unique Opportunity in the Digital Age

  • With media creation democratized by platforms like YouTube, Africans now have low barriers to tell authentic stories, but often default to negative or outdated narratives.
  • Quote (A, 03:38):
    “We need to own our stories. We need to own companies that tell our stories better… If creation is democratized, why are we still telling stories that are outdated?”
  • Memorable Moment: Discussion of major African media outlets being acquired by foreign entities, raising concerns about narrative control.

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2. Advice for Young Africans: Pathways to Wealth

• Study Success and Mindset

  • The best way for new graduates to progress is by studying those who have already achieved success; emulate their mindset and habits.
  • Quote (A, 04:11):
    “First thing I would say, study the people that have built… If you are here and want to get there, the best thing is to study the people that have gotten there successfully and stayed there.”

• The Importance of Reading and Learning

  • Consuming books and learning from others disrupts limiting beliefs and creates new patterns of thinking, opening doors to wisdom and wealth.
  • Quote (A, 04:51):
    “Learning something new… begins to break away patterns of old thinking… you would definitely see something different from how you've been thinking.”

• Move Beyond Step-by-Step Formulas

  • The emphasis is on internalizing lessons rather than ticking off predefined steps; true transformation comes from absorbing and applying knowledge.

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3. Personal Growth: From Non-Reader to Reader

• Host’s Personal Journey

  • The host candidly shares a dislike for reading during youth but credits a pivotal speech and exposure to influential leaders for changing this attitude.
  • Inspiration from Nigerian church leader Bishop Oyedepo, who champions reading as fundamental to leadership and notes his greatest investment is his library.

• Transformative Books

  • "Ego is the Enemy" by Ryan Holiday as the gateway book that catalyzed personal change.
  • "The Psychology of Money" helped reframe thoughts about wealth, focusing on behavioral patterns over tactics.
  • Quote (A, 05:53):
    “Leaders are readers… The most valuable investment is his library. The amount of money he’s spent… is books.”
  • Quote (A, 07:10): “‘Ego is the Enemy’… did so many things to my mind… The moment I picked up that book, I realized everything that was wrong with what I was doing… The people that are wealthy are wise. That’s the difference.”

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4. AI and the Future of Wealth in Africa

• AI's Imminent and Unavoidable Impact

  • AI is fundamentally changing education, employment, and wealth creation, with deep effects on Africa as on the rest of the world.
  • Africans must be proactive in learning and applying AI, as formal education systems will lag behind current developments.
  • Quote (A, 08:28):
    “It doesn’t really matter how fast we want to develop in Africa… we are dependent on the Western world… AI is going to disrupt learning… job creation… democratize wealth creation.”

• AI Will Not Replace People, But People Who Don’t Use AI

  • Quote (A, 09:12):
    “AI is not going to replace humans… but it will replace people who don’t know how to use AI. So your job is not at risk. Your job is just at risk if you don’t know how to use AI.”

• Practical Example:

  • Logo design: Instead of waiting for a designer with lengthy processes, AI enabled immediate creation.
  • Quote (A, 09:53):
    “Everything that was inside my mind, I put it inside AI and it generated a logo for me.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Media Barriers & the African Narrative (01:10):
  • “It’s not only on us as citizens... It’s also on the government... It’s difficult to say something nice about a country that hasn’t really done much to help you.” — Speaker A
• On Ownership over African Stories (03:38):
  • “We need to own our stories. We need to own companies that tell our stories better.” — Speaker A
• On Learning from Success (04:11):
  • “Study the people who have built. Well, that’s the first thing I would say.” — Speaker A
• On AI’s Role (09:12):
  • “AI is not going to replace humans... but it will replace people who don’t know how to use AI.” — Speaker A

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–01:50 — How films shape perceptions of Africa, storytelling bias
• 01:51–03:55 — Who’s responsible for Africa’s image? Role of government, citizens, media
• 03:56–05:42 — Wealth-building advice for young Africans, lifelong learning
• 05:43–07:58 — Host’s journey to reading, recommended transformative books
• 08:04–10:16 — The rise of AI, future of work, and advice for Africans to adapt and thrive

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Conclusion

This episode is a clarion call for Africans—and indeed all listeners—to intentionally seize control of their narratives, invest in their own learning and mindset, and remain agile in a rapidly changing world. Through personal stories, actionable insights, and empowering quotes, Derrick Abaitey crafts a compelling vision for proactive success and transformation.

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Transcript

[A]

Have you watched Hollywood movies? When they want to show, for example, let's say they want to do a movie that has to do with the military in the U.S. they show, maybe they say the military wants to go into somewhere in Africa to maybe meet a warlord. The HD resolution of the screen comes down, it becomes brownish in color. Psychologically, it's telling us that it's not a place to go to. Even if you watch. I like to watch a lot of mob movies and drug lord movies like Pablo Escobar and all those people. If you look at the way they portray Colombia, Mexico, South America, Cuba, the color of the screen is brown. But when maybe the drug lord now wants to expand business into Miami. Because Miami is on the border of a lot of this Texas. Once you see the screen quality, the first thing you see is skyscrapers, beaches, fast cars. Miami is a place of luxury, of wealth. That's what they are saying, that even the Mexicans and the Colombians, America has one of the highest level of Latin people there. Latin Americans want to move over.

[B]

So in an age where the barrier to entry into media is so low now. Yes, because you could just pick up a phone as an African and tell a story. What story should people be telling?

[A]

Story? Story of African development and the beauty of Africa. The truth is that it's difficult. It's not just on us as citizens. It's also on the government as well. Because it's difficult to say something good or something nice about a country that hasn't really done much to help you. So I see the disconnect. I'm not just going to come and say butcher Africa is good. Butcher Africa. There are some people that because of the insecurity and because of the corruption, they've lost family members, they've lost wealth, they've lost a lot of things. How will we tell that kind of person? So it's a joint effort. The government provides the basic needs for society and the society will tell the story. You treat people well. You don't need to pay them to talk good about you. So it's a joint effort government invest in making the countries better. The citizens will do the job. Every average tiktoker that travels to France already post pictures about Paris. Does the government call them and say, when you come to France, make sure you post the iPhone? No, because they love the place. It's beautiful. Right. People now are coming into Lagos for the dirty December. Why? Because Lagos has made the environment conducive for people to do parties and do all that. But now when People see war happening in Africa. Even our news stations are pushing war, pushing jazz, pushing all these things that are not good. How many news stations in Africa, how many radio shows, how many podcasts? I'm in Ghana right now. I've seen beautiful buildings, I've seen beautiful places. How many stations, how many people show it? How many people in Nigeria show it? Just one or two movies in Nigeria that you will see this and that. But our storylines, yes, we should tell our story so that we can resonate with people that are watching the movies. But the onus is on the people in the media to make Africa local. So anybody now that is going into a media space, podcast or whatever, at least at some point in time, say something good about the narrative because we are fighting a war and it's a war narrative. It's a war narrative. The American government is doing what they would to keep America as the top country in the world while possibly discrediting others. The African government is also taking that narrative and not doing anything about it. It's not. We spoke the other day and I said the biggest media station in Africa has just been acquired by France, which means if they want to, assuming they want to shut it down, there's no DSTV or multichoice again for us, which is where we even get most a lot of our right. We need to own our stories. We need to own companies that tell our stories better. And that's the beauty of YouTube. Like you said, the barriers to entry are low. We've democratized creation. So if creation is democratized, why are we still telling stories that are outdated?

[B]

A young man that just finished university, let's say a 21 year old that is starting life just after university, he really wants to change his life and build wealth. What will be the exact process he should go through? Change his life?

[A]

He just left university. Yes. The first thing I will say, study the people who have built. Well, that's the first thing I would say. If you are here and you want to get there, the best thing to do is study the people that have gotten there successfully and stay there. The mindset tip I would give to him is it's a long game. So if you come out of university and you just think you're just going to hit a million bucks like that down a long day. First thing I'll tell someone who's just coming out of university, study the people who have become wealthy. That's what I'll say.

[B]

Anything else for that 21 year old?

[A]

I think the moment you study the people who have become wealthy. What learning something new does to you. That's why I always advise people to read books. What learning something new does to you, it begins to break away patterns of old thinking. You would, when you read books, you would definitely see something different from how you've been thinking. That's what I'll say. Once I. Once I tell people study, I don't need to tell them anything else to do. Because when you give people. Because everybody wants steps, five steps, six steps, seven steps, so they can easily say, I've stick this one off, I've stick this one off. But they now begin to do things just to take steps. They don't begin to do things and soak that particular phase of their journey. So in the process of studying those people, you are extracting knowledge from them and becoming someone who has that knowledge. Wisdom is application of knowledge applies. There are a lot of people that are knowledgeable that are not wealthy. The people that are wealthy are wise. That's the difference.

[B]

You what changed in your pattern of thinking when you started reading and listening to people who have done it? What actually changed? Where was the bridge formed?

[A]

It's quite controversial, right? Because I, I started reading. I actually hated reading. I actually hated reading. I was not even out of all my siblings, I never used to pick up books. Most people think I'm just becoming. I just became a reader, right? And I went to school, a particular school in Africa in Nigeria called Covenant University. His bishop Oyedepo is one of the largest pastors in Nigeria. He owns a school called Covenant University. And I remember him speaking one day and he said two things. He said, number one, leaders are readers. Number two, his most valuable investment is his library. That the amount of money he has, what he has spent, the most amount of money in his life is books. And I looked at the person saying this and I looked at his life and I looked at what he has been able to achieve. So I'm like, if the person who has achieved all this wealth and all this influence says that this is the amount of money he has spent on this and that is what I should do. And it can get me here, let me try it. Because when he used to say readers are leaders, I'm like, I beg. That's what everybody is saying, Jerry. But let me try one book. And the first book I actually started reading, changed it from. That was the first ever book that got me into reading was a book titled Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday. And that book, it did so many things to my mind that I was like, oh, my goodness. And from then started picking other books. Then I now looked at it. Okay, I started picking up books on business. I started picking up books on wealth building. He started peeling away things that I've been doing. There's a particular book I always advise people to read. It's called the Psychology of Money. When you read that book, you understand that wealth is first about your money patterns than it is about what you do. That book began to show me how I was even thinking about money, which is why a lot of my money was getting lost in circulation. I never came back. That's where the change happened. The moment I picked up that book, I realized everything that was wrong with what I was doing. So I would say leaders are readers.

[B]

So it will be beautiful to pick up a book and start reading.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

You know, there's a question that keep. You know, in recent times, every time I have a conversation, I want to drop this in there. AI, African economy or wealth? Conversations about the young people. How is it going to influence the way we think about money and how we approach wealth?

[A]

Artificial intelligence is here. That's the truth. Because it doesn't really matter how fast we want to develop in Africa. Right. Because for a lot of things, we are dependent on the Western world. We don't have a choice about AI. It's coming. It's already here. AI is going to disrupt learning. It has already disrupted learning. It's going to disrupt employment, is going to disrupt job creation. It's going to democratize wealth creation because. And it's going to take a lot of jobs from people. But our advice, every African is to understand AI and learn what it can do. The educational system in Africa is not going to automatically today start doing BSc. AI. No, we're not. We're not there yet. So it is your job to learn what AI can do and how AI can help you. There was a particular coach I was listening to, and he said this. He said, AI is going to. How did he put it? He said, AI is. Is not going to replace humans. Right. But it will replace the people who don't know how to use AI. So your job is not at risk. Your job is just at risk. If you don't know how to use AI, no company is just going to come tomorrow and say, I was scrapping this whole department because AI is going to do the work. The truth is that AI needs prompt engineering. You still need to give the AI prompts to do the work for you and manipulate those prompts to get some sort of data. Right. So the people who understand how to use AI are going to, for example, the video editor. Yep. The photographer.

[B]

Right.

[A]

The people who design. I think I wanted to design a logo one time for something. And I have spoken to one guy who did design and he was telling me that, oh, you know, my creative processor takes two weeks to develop. This is the amount of money I was like, what is all these two weeks to develop? And everything that was inside my mind, I put it inside AI and it generated logo for me.

[B]

Connected Minds Podcast.