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Biltong, braais, being an 'IT bitch': A UK woman on working in Africa
Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa as seen by one Milton Keynes woman
The eXpat Files Jo Crawshaw is a 28-year-old woman who hails from “just outside the concrete jungle that is Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire”. These days you'll find her all over Africa, because her work for Opera Software means her gig is all about chatting to the continent's carriers.
That job's taken her into some pretty confronting situations regarding race and gender.
Jo's loving it and has decided she'll stay in South Africa. Why? Cast your eyeballs downwards, dear readers, to find out ...
The Register: What kind of work do you do and with which technologies?
The Register: Why did you decide to move to Ghana? And then South Africa?
My plan was always to get real experience of working in challenging markets, so when the offer finally came to work in Ghana, I ran with it. When my contract there was over I was offered a more senior position in the South Africa office. I'd never been to South Africa and had heard all the the horror stories of violence, etc, but I thought, why not? I'm very glad I took the move.
The Register: What are the challenges that face a professional woman in Africa?
In Africa more so than in Europe I do believe that women are still seen as subordinates and this very easily trickles through to how you're treated in business situations. It's quite an interesting juxtaposition working for a company headquartered in Norway - a country known for its gender neutrality - to regularly doing business in Nigeria, which tends to come near the bottom of global gender gap reports. I have become far more patient and accepting of differing cultural attitudes throughout my career so far. You just have to! It certainly helps that I have some fantastic male colleagues and we support each other as a team.
When it comes to race, it's always a touchy subject and there is still shocking segregation in South Africa, which generally doesn't appear to be imposed, or even intended, by either black or white but just seems like a horrible hangover of apartheid. The government introduced Black Economic Empowerment to redress the inequalities of apartheid and offer "previously disadvantaged" racial groups certain economic privileges, such as employment preference. This certainly impacts the South African job market and I have also found that some do hold the belief that whites are taking jobs that should be given to blacks. This can be a difficult attitude to deal with sometimes.
The Register: In your email to us you said "There's nothing more dynamic and innovative than the African tech business." We can't let that go: give us some examples!
“Pay as you go” was invented in Africa because contracts require reliable systems and people with enough money to pay for them. “Please call mes” were invented in Africa because it's common for people to run out of calling credit. Safaricom in Kenya pioneered mobile money because, well let's just say that their banks weren't exactly great at the time. When the latest outbreak of Ebola occurred, Africans rushed to their mobile phones for information and as they did, free apps and services offering advice and up to date news sprung up from all around the continent.
I can't think of another industry in Africa that is as fast-moving, exciting or rewarding as tech and telecoms. It's not about having a device in your pocket, it's about providing an outlet for knowledge, opportunity and socio-economic growth. Without coming across like a geek version of Bob Geldof with a better haircut, I honestly think that mobile is the conduit to improving lives in Africa.
The Register: We keep hearing a lot about "the next billion" people to come online, and it's assumed they'll do so with smartphones. What do you see happening in Africa? Is it phones? Or are PCs and tablets a force?
Price points and battery life are a big thing for the entry-level feature phone market and competition is stiff to win over this huge consumer group in Africa.
The Register: Pay: up or down?
The Register: How do workplaces differ between the UK and Ghana? And South Africa?
Internet and power are not reliable in Africa. In South Africa, we've recently gone through a bad patch of load shedding (where Eskom, the public electricity utility, turns off the power for hours on end). Naturally, this can impact one's ability to work effectively - much to the confusion of my colleagues in ever-functional Norway!
The Register: What's cheaper in Ghana and South Africa compared to the UK? What's more expensive?
South Africa is cheaper for pretty much everything except for things like cars (double the price of buying in the UK) and cosmetics, which both have a luxury tax slapped on them. Domestic and inter-Africa flights are disgustingly expensive. For the price I have paid to get from Jozi (Johannesburg) to Cape Town during the busy Christmas season you could fly from London to New York. This is a particularly dramatic example but you get my drift. Internet is also hugely expensive and given the limited fibre networks, a lot of people rely on mobile internet. Competition is increasing and prices are coming down but it's a slow process.
The Register: You now consider South Africa home: what made you decide to stay?
The Register: Food: what have you learned to love? And what don't you touch?
The Register: What's your top tip to help new arrivals settle in?
The Register: What advice would you offer someone considering the same move?
If you're moving from the UK, try and keep that salary in pounds! The rand fluctuates more than Cape Town's weather so you could end up getting a pay increase one month only to be poorer than you started out the month after.
The Register: What can you get up to on weekends in Johannesburg you couldn't do in the UK?
Have you moved to a new land? Tell us your story by writing to me. We're keen for stories from anywhere, but have yet to hear from many folks who've moved to Asia, South America or Europe. C'mon - one of you must be doing the idyllic French village thing... or the post-colonial enclave thing in Shanghai? Don't be shy! ®