Maker Faire Africa would not be possible to put on without the time and energy of a larger ecosystem of supporting people and organizations (Note: not to be confused with Sponsors of MFA). Those listed below have supported this initiative:

Maker Faire
The idea for Maker Faire Africa came from the thought that it would be a powerful event to bring together African inventors and innovators in the same way that Maker Faire happens in the US. So, with the blessings of O’Reilly to use that brand, we set out to create MFA. What is a Maker Faire anyway? In their own words:

A two-day, family-friendly event to MAKE, create, learn, invent, CRAFT, recycle, think, play and be inspired by celebrating arts, crafts, engineering, food, music, science and technology.

AfriGadget, Timbuktu Chronicles and Nubian Cheetah
The ethos of Maker Faire Africa is directly related to the type of stories covered on AfriGadget and Timbuktu Chronicles. The people behind both blogs are heavily involved in making sure MFA happens and that it stays true to the type of individuals whose stories are told each week.

Nii Simmonds of Nubian Cheetah Blog

Amy Smith
Founder of D-Lab at MIT and the International Development Design Summit (IDDS)

The special relationship here is that IDDS will be taking place in Ghana the weeks before Maker Faire Africa, so we are piggy-backing off of the energy that IDDS and Amy are bringing to this space in this area at this time. Though they are not directly involved with MFA, they are strong supporters.

The idea of Afrobotics robotics competition was initially conceptualized by Nii Simmonds, Henry Barnor, and Ayorkor Mills-Tettey. When one looks at entrepreneurial risk-taking in Africa, there seems to be a vacuum or schism in regards to small-scale manufacturing on the continent. We are coming together as Africans to get students at the secondary and university level to embrace a collaborative, fun, and challenging competition for sustainable engineering startups throughout Africa.

Butterfly Works joined the Maker Faire team from their background of creativity and idealism and experience with organising events and happenings in Africa and Europe amongst creative people.

Dream Manufactory – educating students with robots

Director Nana Manu