Afropolitan is creating a Digital Nation to enable all Africans to build abundant lives.
We are building a network comprising the best that Africa and the diaspora offer across art, finance, tech, health, energy, sports, and media. The Afropolitan Network is a Curator of Black and African:
Nevertheless, we believe our reach should exceed our grasp. While it may be a humble Network today, Afropolitan will be the first-ever internet country in the future. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. First, you may be asking: why build a Digital Nation?
Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.
— Frantz Fanon
Scarcity. Weakness. Poverty. Wherever we look and wherever we are, Africans worldwide are subjects, not citizens. Access to opportunity is scarce. Security is not guaranteed. For the most part, life is just about surviving, not thriving.
What would you do if you could do anything? If your future was boundless, not bounded? What if your allegiance to a country did not depend on birth but on choice? In short: What would happen if you could come together with others to build a new society?
We know what you’re thinking: “This is unrealistic .” Everything around you, from the machine on which you’re reading this manifesto to the country you live in, was once an idea in somebody’s head. They only came to be thanks to the work of millions of people, no more intelligent or better than you.
In this spirit, and with humility and hope for the future, we Afropolitans declare:
To all future Afropolitans, our deal is simply this: join the Network of Abundance to be all you can be. Afropolitan is the canvas; you wield the brush.
Human beings are social animals. All that is good and noble about us stems from the fact that we need each other. In the most basic sense, building a new country is a process of scaling a social network around a shared mission and principles. Social networks are formed online and tend to stay there in our time. But what if we built a new network and migrated it into the real world via a city (or Network of cities)?
Crypto-philosopher Balaji Srinivasan highlighted this as the most viable strategy to build such a country — which he calls a Network State — in the 21st Century. The Network State is a digital nation launched first as an online community before materializing physically on land after reaching critical mass.
The internet enables people to organize around shared values at scales that were previously unthinkable before the current century. If it were a country, Facebook would be the largest one globally. With the advent of cryptocurrency, the next Facebook will not be a social network with a passive online community but rather a full-blown digital republic coordinated by its native currency and a unifying mission.
What, then, could Afropolitan be? If it were a country, the African diaspora would be the 10th largest globally (~ 150 Million). The diaspora is our North Star.
The best way to reform an obsolete system is by building a newer, more straightforward system. Afropolitan’s objective is to solve the Crisis of Legitimacy experienced by Africans worldwide by building a new source of Legitimacy embodied in our Digital Nation.
We will do so in four phases:
In the first phase of our plan, we will focus on building awareness and excitement about the Afropolitan Network and the digital nation we are creating. We will do this by launching an NFT (non-fungible token) campaign that will outline the mythology and vision for our new nation. Afropolitan NFTs will also grant members access to exclusive events and future value-added services, as well as a digital passport that will allow them to participate in the network. Our goal is to seed the network with passionate and engaged members who are committed to building a better world for Africans.
In the second phase of our plan, we will focus on providing our members with maximum value and utility through the Afropolitan Super App. This app will bring together all the different utilities and services within the Afropolitan ecosystem in one place, allowing members to monitor their holdings, send money across borders, contribute to the DAO, and buy goods and services. The app will also provide a native media feed that will allow members to stay up to date on the latest developments within the network and watch it grow around the world. Our goal is to create a sense of community and momentum within the network, making it feel like a movement.
In the third phase of our plan, we will focus on preparing for the transition from the digital to the physical world. Our goal is to establish legitimacy and state capacity by building a network of seed institutions to govern the Afropolitan Network. This will include subsidiary funds, organizations, and a developing internal economy. By creating these structures, we aim to ensure that the network is well-equipped to govern itself and serve its members effectively once it has migrated from the digital to the physical world.
In the fourth and final phase of our plan, we will leverage the network, capital, and legitimacy we have built up over the previous phases to acquire land in partnership with governments. This land will create a physical presence for the Afropolitan Network, where members can establish a physical presence and create economic opportunities. The network state will serve as the "digital capital" that governs these physical districts. In the long term, we plan to build a more extensive network of charter cities, similar to Singapore and Hong Kong, governed by the Afropolitan Network.
We are embarking on a long and taxing journey. Our destination may be clear, but the path is uncertain. As we launch Phase 1, Afropolitan is looking to onboard the most dedicated and ambitious people to join our Network. We care less about what you’ve done and more about who you aspire to become and how we can all be better together.
To get involved, join our mailing list first and apply to become a founding citizen.
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