Let me start by asking you a question, just with a show of hands: Who has an iPhone? Who has an Android phone? Who has a Blackberry? Who will admit in public to having a Blackberry? 

在开始演说前，请让我问你们 一个问题，请举手回答： 谁有苹果手机？ 谁有安卓系统手机？ 谁有黑莓手机？谁会在公众面前承认自己有黑莓呢？

And let me guess, how many of you, when you arrived here, like me, went and bought a pay-as-you-go SIM card? Yeah? I'll bet you didn't even know you're using African technology. Pay-as-you-go was a technology, or an idea, pioneered in Africa by a company called Vodacom a good 15 years ago, and now, like franchising,pay-as-you-go is one of the most dominant forces of economic activity in the world.

让我猜猜，你们中有多少人 在到达这里的时候， 像我一样，去购买了 预付费的手机卡？ 我敢打赌你甚至不知道你正在使用的这项技术来自非洲。 预付费手机卡这种技术，或者说这个创意 是非洲的一个名为沃达康的公司 在 15 年前率先使用的， 现在，就像特许经营一样， 预付费是全球范围内 最主导的经济活动。

So I'm going to talk about innovation in Africa, which I think is the purest form, innovation out of necessity. But first, I'm going to ask you some other questions. You don't have to put your hands up. These are rhetorical.

所以我想要谈一谈 在非洲的创新活动， 我认为这样的创新活动 是以一种最纯粹的方式在进行着， 那就是因为要满足需求而创新。 但首先，我要问你一些问题。 你不需要举手。 这些都只是修辞。

Why did Nikola Tesla have to invent the alternating current that powers the lights in this building or the city that we're in?

为什么Nikola Tesla必须发明交流电来驱动这座建筑物或我们所在城市的灯光？

Why did Henry Ford have to invent the production line to produce these Fords that came in anything as long as they were black?

为什么亨利福特要发明生产线来生产这些福特汽车，只要它们是黑色的，就什么都有。

And why did Eric Merrifield have to invent the dolos? Blank stares. That is what a dolos looks like, and in the background, you can see Robben Island. This is a small dolos, and Eric Merrifield is the most famous inventor you've never heard of. In 1963, a storm ripped up the harbor in a small South African town called East London, and while he was watching his kids playing with toys made from oxen bones called dolosse, he had the idea for this. It's a bit like a huge jumping jack, and they have used this in every harbor in the world as a breakwater. The global shipping economy would not be possible without African technology like this.

为什么艾瑞克·梅里菲尔德 要发明扭工字块体？ 面无表情。 这就是扭工字块体的样子， 你可以看到背景中的是罗本岛。 这是小的扭工字块体 和艾瑞克·梅里菲尔德 是你没听说过的、最著名的发明家。 1963 年，一场暴风雨席卷港口 在南非的一个名叫东伦敦的小镇， 当他看到孩子们玩着 用牛骨头制作的叫扭工字块的玩具， 他有了灵感。 它有点像一个巨大的开合跳， 世界上的每个港口都用这个来 搭建防波堤。 没有这样的非洲技术， 全球航运经济就不可能实现。

So whenever you talk about Africa, you have to put up this picture of the world from space, and people go, "Look, it's the Dark Continent." Actually, it isn't. What it is is a map of innovation. And it's really easy to see where innovation's going on. All the places with lots of electricity, it isn't. And the reason it isn't is because everybody's watching television or playing Angry Birds. 

所以每当你谈到非洲， 展示这张从太空拍摄的地球图片， 人们会说，"你看，那是黑暗的大陆" 实际上，它不是。 这是一张创新地图。 你很容易就能看到 创新的地方在哪里， 它并不是那些 电力充足的亮光之处。因为住在亮光之处的每个人 都在看电视，或玩愤怒的小鸟。 

So where it's happening is in Africa. Now, this is real innovation, not the way people have expropriated the word to talk about launching new products. This is real innovation, and I define it as problem-solving. People are solving real problems in Africa. Why? Because we have to. Because we have real problems. And when we solve real problems for people, we solve them for the rest of the world at the same time.

创新的地方在非洲。 这才是真正的创新， 不是人们征用“创新”这个词来 谈论推出的新产品。 这是真正的创新， 我将它定义为解决问题的创新。 在非洲，人们在解决真正的问题。 为什么呢？因为我们必须这样做。 因为我们有真正的麻烦。 当我们为人民 解决实际问题的时候， 我们为世界其他地区的人们， 在同一时间 解决了同样的问题。

So, you hear the West talk about innovation at the edge. Well, of course it's happening at the edge, because in the middle, everybody's updating Facebook, or worse still, they're trying to understand Facebook's privacy settings.This is not that catchy catchphrase. This is innovation over the edge.

所以，你听到西方在谈论边缘的创新。当然，这是发生在边缘，因为在中间，每个人都在更新facebook，或者更糟的是，他们试图理解facebook的隐私设置。这不是那么吸引人的短语。这是超越边缘的创新。

So, people like to call Africa a mobile-first continent, but actually it's mobile-only, so while everybody else is doing all of those things, we're solving the world's problems. So there's only one thing left to say.

因此，人们喜欢称非洲为“移动先行大陆” 但实际上它是“只有移动”， 所以当别人在做所有这些事情的时候， 我们在解决世界的问题。 最后要说的是。

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