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OBT SOCIAL- THE STATE OF THE INTERNET IN NSI YA UBUNTU (AFRICA)
OBT SOCIAL- THE STATE OF THE INTERNET IN NSI YA UBUNTU (AFRICA) Kumbukeni- Reclaiming Our Narrative 55 Views • 2 years ago

⁣Kumbukeni is joined by our brothers Michael Thompson and Sidney Nicholas, of Our Black Truth, popularly known as OBT Social to discuss the state of the internet in Nsi ya Ubuntu, what the barriers are and how we can dissolve them to make way for progress.

Mr. Michael Thompson is a technologist who has been in the business since he was a sophomore in high school in Northern Virginia starting with AT&T Communications in 1984. After leaving AT&T after graduating high school, he worked for Quantum Computer Services who later changed their name to AOL, America Online, one of the first online companies in the world. After leaving AOL he went to work for UUNET Technologies, one of only a handful of specialists in the business of building a national network to link individuals and companies to the Internet. During his time at UUNET Mr. Thompson was part of the team that helped build the Microsoft network and beta test Windows 95. During his tenure, he received numerous technical certifications with companies like Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Lucent and many others. After leaving UUNET Technologies he went to work as a consultant where he helped to design and implement networks for the U.S. Federal government, telecoms and various fortune 500 companies around the world. Mr. Thompson, then started a company called “Food on the Move”, which delivered food from restaurants throughout Northern Virginia. Food on the Move was later sold. Then around 1999, Mr. Thompson sold his video streaming company called “StreamNow” to a telco, which was soon acquired by Bell Atlantic, who then changed their name to Verizon and he served as Vice President of Video Services. As the VP, he was the first person to host a meeting demonstrating video streaming technology in 2001 to all of the major movie studios including Warner Bros, Disney, Sony, MGM, DreamWorks, New Line Cinema and many others. After leaving Verizon, Mr. Thompson again consulted for various government agencies and fortune 500 companies for a number of years and started other businesses. Then around 2019, he decided to build a social media platform because of the unfair treatment and discrimination we were experiencing on the major platforms. Once the platform was completed, it was named “Our Black Truth” which was later shortened to “OBT Social” because there were those who were offended by the name and what the platform stood for. Today, OBT Social has more than 6 platforms, that span more than 190 countries and is connected to the internet at the fastest speeds possible and has servers housed at what is called “Data Center Alley”, Ashburn, Virginia. This is the areas in which he grew up and it is said that more than 70% of the world’s internet traffic flows through this city and no other place in the world has more data centers or internet connectivity.

Sidney Nicholas currently serves as the VP of Marketing for OBT Social and the CEO of the consulting firm AtumIQ. With a background in marketing technology, he specializes in marketing psychology and data analytics. Born and raised just outside of Detroit, MI, Sidney developed a passion for technology at an early age. He pursued business studies with a marketing focus in his post-secondary education and subsequently worked in the marketing departments of various organizations, including corporate entities and SMBs. Throughout his professional career, Sidney initiated studies in psychology, becoming a trainer in NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) and other tools related to psychology, persuasion, and personal development. He considers himself Pan-African and believes that Africa's advancement is crucial for all Afro-descendant people worldwide.

How Eurocentric Education Gets African History Wrong
How Eurocentric Education Gets African History Wrong Kwabena Ofori Osei 53 Views • 2 years ago

Further Research Recommendations below.

Check out the original video by Economics Explained here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8TXQWVsoI

"Why Is Africa Poor" by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson: https://economics.mit.edu/site....s/default/files/publ

Book Recommendations:

Austen, Ralph A. Trans-Saharan Africa in World History. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Conrad, David C. Empires of Medieval West Africa: Ghana, Mali, and Songhay. Chelsea House Publishers, 2010.

Ehret, Christopher. Civilizations of Africa: A history to 1800. Charlottesville: The University of Virginia Press, 2018.
(This one is super long and a bit academic, but covers an extremely broad timeframe and area, and goes much further back than most history books on Africa.)

Fauvelle , Francois-Xavier. The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages. S.l.: Princeton University Press, 2021. (This book covers a lot of topics in African history over a pretty wide area, but isn't overwhelmingly long)

Gomez, Michael A. African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019. (Very good book on Medieval Sahelian history)

Parker, John, and David Adjaye. Great Kingdoms of Africa. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2023. (This book features articles written by different scholars on a variety of topics from across Africa, and like The Golden Rhinoceros it's not too long. Great place to get a taste of history from across the continent)

Phillipson, David W. Foundations of an African Civilisation: Aksum and the Northern Horn, 1000 BC - AD 1300. Oxford: James Currey, 2012.

Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic World: 1400-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007. (Probably my favorite book an Atlantic Africa)

The Cambridge History of Africa (Volumes 1-5 for Pre-Colonial History)

African History-Focused Channel Recommendations:
@FromNothing
@hiddenhist
@Bamise
@hometeamhistory806
@Mrminibagel
@medievalafrica
@ronuspirit

Video Recommendations from channels not specifically focused on African history:
Mansa Musa and Islam in Africa: Crash Course World History #16:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvnU0v6hcUo&ab_channel=CrashCourse
Int'l Commerce, Snorkeling Camels, and The Indian Ocean Trade: Crash Course World History #18:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6XtBLDmPA0
Kongo: Central African Superpower - African Empires Ep. 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUvfo0Vkr84
What Wheelbarrows can teach us about World History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRnwg3dpboc
Brief History Of Africa Before Colonialism -- How did we get there?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHrGorccjcg
Medieval transport - the beginners' guide (this one isn't related to African history directly, but elaborates on some of the stuff I talked about regarding transportation in this video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=tdguh1D-fOk&ab_channel=Lindybeige

My own videos on West African History:

The Kingdom of Benin (Edo Empire) | West Africa's Longest Lasting State: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I86yPms8fys
The Ghana Empire (Wagadu) - Africa's Land of Gold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuKV_Fd4vfs

Apparently my citations are too long to include in this description, so I'll put them in a pinned comment.


Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/somasacademy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/somas_academy
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/somasacademy.bsky.social
ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/kalahsoma

00:00 Intro
00:55 Claim: The Sahara Isolated Sub-Saharan Africa
01:25 Trans-Saharan Contact
03:45 Nile Valley and Red Sea Trade
04:10 The Horn and Arabia
04:41 The Swahili Coast and Indian Ocean Trade
05:26 Actual Possible Barriers in Africa
06:11 Claim: Africans Never Developed Farming
07:00 Independent Crop Domestication in Africa
07:58 Introduced Crops in Africa
08:07 Animal Agriculture in Africa
08:52 Spread of Farming in Africa
09:32 Hunter-Gatherer Populations
10:54 MIT Study
12:25 Claims About The Wheel
13:50 Wheel Use in Sub-Saharan Africa
14:14 Saharan Wheels
14:51 Non-Wheeled Transport
16:25 Reasons for the Decline of Wheeled Transport
18:54 Conclusion + Source Recommendations

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