Where your sneakers made in Vietnam? Was your jacket made in China? Are any of your clothes made in South Africa? To many of us, there is a great worry about how foreign the products we consume every day is. From our technology to our cutlery, there are some consumer goods we could never imagine South Africa producing. But there are some excellent products that locals could design – we just don’t create them.
From an economic perspective, our clothing choices can easily be explained through globalisation. Communities from around the world trade goods, exchange cultures and spread ideas. Some areas are better placed to produce goods than others. Economists call this comparative advantage. This is not something to be worried about. In fact, countries embrace this idea by searching for where their comparative advantage lies.
But where does South Africa’s comparative advantage lie? Well, TEDxUFS hosted Shaxe Khumalo in 2014 and he expressed in a talk how Africa can create our own:
His answer was that it lies in creativity. Shaxe stresses how channeling our innovation can help us compete with even the best of products.
How to create
First, Shaxe suggests taking control of the technology around us. Services are moving online, products are becoming technological and businesses are becoming automated. In the world of technology, advantage has little to do with geographic position – it has to do with mentality. Shaxe explains how platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook developed from a will to create. This mentality also created the South African Mxit platform. It required nothing more than a few innovators in Stellenbosch to create a social media application that reached over 8 million people.
Second, find an industry that allows for creativity. Music is an example of a product that no country has specific advantage over because it relies on our ability to curate. In his talk, Shaxe delivers a riveting musical performance where he displays the creativity of merging art styles to create something magnificent. This innovation required nothing but the will to create.
There are many industries that South African creators are working endlessly to build. As consumers, we don’t necessarily have to change our shoes – but perhaps we might want change the applications we use or the music we listen to.
More talks
Watch more talks here:
