Is Africa the continent of the future?

Africa is currently the most undeveloped continent of the world. There is a lot of beautiful wild nature, but in general, not so much infrastructure. If you want to build a regular house, the chance that you will get a gas and water supply is much lower then, for example, in Europe. But if you believe in the future of eco-friendly houses, then Africa is maybe the continent you want to go to.

If you would not be dependent on the classical way of building, you could build your house anywhere you want. Set you house in the middle of nature; make sure you have enough sun collectors, maybe a windmill and a rainwater tank. Wireless internet would be probably useful as well, so that you don’t feel lonely…

When you look at the industrialized countries over the world, there is a lot of infrastructure everywhere; a lot of houses, office buildings, pipelines, electricity lines, telephone lines, new buildings, old buildings, contaminated soil. This was all part of the industrialization process of the past centuries. People have concentrated into the cities, to find work, to exchange knowledge and to build machinery and products to make our lives easier. This was a logical process.

However, most of the people living in the cities nowadays, realize that they miss nature. They are surrounded by man-made structures and the occasional tree on side of the road. When they go on holiday, they choose to go to a natural environment. They go to the see, they walk in the forest or they hike in the mountains; they search for solitude and quiet. They need this to recharge their energy, to be able to come back and go on living in the cities.

With internet having bigger and bigger role in our lives, it is not necessary anymore to concentrate in the cities to exchange and gain knowledge. Knowledge used to be exchanged mainly by personal meeting or by books, but nowadays most of the information exchange happens through the internet. This means that you can live in the village, in the city or in the middle of nowhere and if you have an internet connection  you are in touch with the world; you can gain and exchange information and knowledge anywhere on the planet.

So, if we connect A: the spread of internet, B: sustainable house that does not need a connection to the rest of the world in terms of water, gas, electricity and C: the fact that people actually prefer to live in a natural environment, we found ourselves searching for a land that has not been previously used for industrial purposes. An area where you could build houses in the nature, but with a connection to the rest of world; by internet and by few minutes walking to reach your next-door neighbor. In Europe or other industrialized countries, there are not many areas anymore that fulfill these criteria. And that is where Africa comes in the picture. It is much easier to start over and build the new infrastructure from scratch, then trying to change the old one.

This is in line with the Law of the stimulative arrears or if you prefer the Law of the handicap of a head start. When there is a fast new development that makes the world look and take another direction, then the development reached in a certain area can be of an disadvantage. The undeveloped areas can go and build straight away, while the old ones are limited by what has been built already.

This will of course not happen overnight. A real self-sustainable house does not exist yet. Most of the environmental houses that are realized at the moment achieve only partial autonomy of the environment. But the change is coming. Within the next few decennia’s, we might find ourselves looking for piece of untamed land to build on it.