African startups need to solve big problems, not chase unicorn status

African startups need to solve big problems, not chase unicorn status

In 1938, when the Nigerian author D.O. Fagunwa published his seminal work, Ògbójú Ọdẹ nínú Igbó Irúnmalẹ̀, it was the first novel ever written in the Yoruba language of southwest Nigeria. It was translated into English in the late 1960s by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, while he was held as political prisoner. Soyinka’s translation was…