The Untold Chaos of Organizing the Africa Bitcoin Conference
@AfroBitcoinOrg

Now that the celebration of this conference is behind us, I would like to share one of the most unpleasing experiences of curating this event for three consecutive years on a continent where Bitcoin had, at first, one of the worst reputations due to people getting scammed through so many other cryptos and then blaming it on Bitcoin.

For three years, I have kept quiet publicly about the challenges and difficulties we’ve faced, but I think I’ve reached the limit of my capacity to keep things to myself. In this thread, I will share the behind-the-scenes experience of organizing this conference year by year, one of the most difficult and draining things I’ve ever done.

Year 1
We started this conference in 2022 when Bitcoin prices had dipped, and people were making jokes about Bitcoiners. Our journey began in Ghana. Out of respect for the government, we decided to approach their officials and extend an invitation. We were told that one minister was interested in delivering the opening remarks, so we included him in the program.

On Day 1, they didn’t show up. We were later told that he and his cabinet were in Qatar watching the World Cup, and were still there two weeks after their team had already been eliminated.

The only government agency that showed up at the first conference was the Cybercrime Unit. Yes, because when they heard “Bitcoin,” they thought “scammers.” This was a conference that brought some of the best tech entrepreneurs from across the world to discuss a technology capable of fixing our broken, antediluvian financial systems, but hey, it is what it is.

The first person we approached with the idea of holding the African Bitcoin Conference was another African developer known in the Bitcoin space. He said he was 100% in, and we trusted him with registering a company. The first grant we received for the conference was sent to him, and he vanished. He stopped attending team meetings and refused to return the funds.

The event company we engaged to handle everything, production, stage, venue, vendors, etc., took their first advance payment, kept delaying service, made endless promises, and delivered absolutely nothing.

One company we approached offered to be the top sponsor. We decided instead to go with another African company that wanted to be the lead sponsor. For months, we sat in meetings with them. They complained about everything. We hired a media firm and began spending funds we didn’t have. They claimed our ads weren’t enough, then they insisted on insurance to protect them in case COVID canceled the event.

We approached every insurance company with policies covering Ghana, and none offered such a policy. They audited everything, from our expenditures to our planned costs, and told us we didn’t need to feed attendees at the conference, which is unthinkable in this region.

Then, two months before the conference, exactly two months, they told us they didn’t have the money.

I pulled together a team to organize the conference, made up of young people I had worked with in other spaces, people I knew had a great work ethic. They had zero knowledge of Bitcoin and zero understanding of what we were doing, but I knew I could teach them about Bitcoin in days or weeks. What I couldn’t teach people was integrity, work ethic, and values. In the end, despite all odds, we had the first edition of the conference. But I went through severe burnout. I crashed on the last day as my chronic neurological issues flared up. It took me over a month to be able to walk again. I had to take medical leave from my actual job because I couldn’t even type.

We ended the first year in debt. Before leaving the conference, @gladstein from HRF asked me how much it was. I told him what I thought it was at that moment, and he said his organization would cover it, something I can never thank him enough for.

But the debts I discovered later on, I just didn’t have the courage to disclose them to anyone. I footed the bill entirely with personal savings. It was over $20k.

@obi who took monthly calls with me to follow up on fundraising and advice while building a new company himself told me it is quite normal for commences to go in debt for the first year and I shouldn’t give up. Can’t thank him enough for the support.

Of course, I promised myself I would never organize a conference again, but when people kept asking when the next one would be and told me how much of a great experience they had, I changed my mind and here we are in Year 2 of the #AfricaBitcoinConference

Let’s cut the sensational lessons on how coups and military regimes are dangerous. It’s condescending and arrogant to assume that the masses supporting military takeovers are too ignorant to understand the implications. The question is: what alternative are you giving them? It is very cynical of those who do not understand the critical situation of insecurity, the severe existential issues masses are facing in the majority of these failed states where the ruling elites control everything to give lectures on democracy and the dangers of coups!

In the 70s dictator Eyadema of #Togo, soldier of the #French colonial army appointed a minister of education called Sylvain Babelem. Babelem was removed, later arrested and charged with corruption for one thing. He defied Eyadema’s bosses: the French government. During a ceremony held by the French embassy to donate school books to #Togo , Minister Babelem who use to be teacher denounced the fact #France was donating books they’ve removed from the French curriculum to #Togo especially the fact that these books embellished colonialism.

France has the 4th largest gold reserve in the world. How?
France holds 90% of the gold reserves of 15 African countries and pays 0% interest on what it makes from those reserves since 1945. These nations however borrow from #France from their own reserves with interest! When #France created the CFA which was inspired by the monetary system the Nazi imposed on #France during WW2, the FCFA parity was at 50 to one French Franc. On 12 January 1994 #France had the IMF devalue it by 50%: we woke up twice poorer and indebted to #France!

The structure of families in Africa are completely different from the Eurocentric version we are taught in colonial school.
In #Togo for most ethnic groups, the word cousin doesn’t exist at all. The paternal cousins are our siblings and the maternal ones are our uncles. In our culture, siblings aren’t limited to the children of your parents. The children of your mother’s sisters and those of your father’s brothers are your siblings. Now all the males in your mother’s family are your uncles and all the females your father’s side are your aunts.

In July 1987, one African president bravely asked that all African countries unite against colonial debts. He mentioned that his initiative could get him killed and indeed three months later, he was assassinated on the orders of France: Thomas #Sankara
Thread 🧵 On July 29,1987 Thomas #Sankara, president of Burlington Faso delivered a vibrant speech at the OAU Summit calling all African leaders to demand debt cancelation from colonial powers to put an end to the plundering of African nations in the repayment of colonial debts.

I will make a thread on why I am against the electoral putsch in #DRC and why I am worried for this country that has never known a democratic transition since independence. Let me start with a disclaimer : I don’t like France. No rather I hate France. I have never hidden it and this will not change even after my death because it is personal. France hurt me , physically , psychologically, emotionally , financially by imposing a savage regime in #Togo