With the opening of its 12th global research lab in Africa last year, IBM decided to find out by launching a three-month picture project: The World is Our Lab – Africa. Participants were asked to use their cameras and smart phones to capture stories of the continent’s grand challenges, city systems and innovation
Over the course of three months, over 1200 contributions were uploaded by 900 participants from 25 African countries ranging from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa to Algeria, Somalia, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Together the images create a rich collage of life across Africa – its people, its systems, its infrastructure – from the continent’s toughest realities to the most modern and inspirational.
Photographer Shabu Mwangi’s image “Digital Migration†emerged as the overall winner of the competition.
Shabu had this to say about the winning image “I took the picture “Digital Migration†to document the memory of an event which took place without any attention from society. The act means a lot and tells a lot about who we are. In these surroundings it is normal to come up with such role play of media presenters and this is a window in which these kids were sharing their thought and creativity.
I took it on December 24, 2013, around 11:00am outside our workshop where we offer classes for kids during school holidays and during weekends. The camera I used is a D3100 Nikon I bought myself in Germany. In the photograph, the kids are using the material around them to express themselves in a creative way
The judges selected Shabu Mwangi’s image “Digital Migration†as the overall winner of the competition because of its iconic representation of the human ability to innovate and overcome a lack of infrastructure.
The City Systems prize went to Kenyan TV producer Frank Odwesso for his image of a ‘Boda Boda’ bicycle taxi in the town of Kitale in Western Kenya illustrating the entrepreneurial approach to public transportation in many African cities.
The Grand Challenges prize went to Nigerian freelance photographer Tobbie Balogun for his image ‘Babysitting’ which caught the eyes of the judges for its narrative about the impact of sibling childcare on school attendance.
The Judges were looking for photos that express how people living in Africa manage their energy or water needs, how they commute, how cities live and breathe and how people come up with innovative solutions to address their needs and create new opportunities. The panel of judges included Mutua Matheka, Erik Hersman from iHub, Salim Amin from A24 Media and Uyi Stewart. Chief Scientist, IBM Research – Africa.