Guardian Africa ask: a week in Twit-interviews

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/13/africa-twitter-live-interviews

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This week the Guardian Africa network hosted a mini-series of quick-fire Twitter interviews with some of the continent’s most-followed accounts.

In 20 (or so) questions we found out more about their personal Twitter highs and lows, how they use it in their day-to-day lives and what the future holds for tech in Africa.

Whilst comprehensive Twitter data is hard to get hold of, a recent analysis of geo-located tweets found a hive of activity around big cities from Lagos to Nairobi. South Africa was found to the most active on Twitter, although the fact that the time period being analysed coincided with the death of Nelson Mandela is likely to have skewed the figures.

The research, conducted by Portland Communications, also found that brands have become increasingly prevalent on Twitter – and that football is the most discussed topic.

When the Mail & Guardian looked at the most followed accounts in Africa they found that, excluding companies and organisations, the most popular individuals were musicians, comedians, models and sportspeople.

In round one of our Twit-interviews we spoke to the people behind the most followed accounts in Tanzania and Uganda, and a Nigerian satirist who recently found himself at the centre of a social media storm after he compared Ebola to the measles outbreak in North America. Here’s what we learned.

@Zittokabwe – Tanzania’s Twitter politician

First up we spoke to Kabwe Zuberi Zitto a Tanzanian opposition politician. Popularly known as Zitto Ruyagwa Kabwe, or Zitto, he boasts the country’s most followed Twitter account. He calls himself a “Twitter politician” and says the site will play a “small role” in this year’s national elections. Click on the slide show in the tweet below to read the full conversation.

Read all of @GuardianAfrica's Twit-interview with Zitto Ruyagwa Kabwe, @zittokabwe https://t.co/dbkF0JUfIm via

@AshishJThakkar – Africa’s youngest billionaire

Ashish Thakkar is the most followed individual in Uganda. He was born in the UK and moved to east Africa as a teenager, where went in to business selling computers at 15. Things quickly expanded and he now employs 10,000 people across 22 countries. Aged 31, some say he is Africa’s youngest billionaire. Thakkar also spends time mentoring Africa’s future entrepreneurs. He talked more about this, and what he looks for in his students in our exchange below.

Read all of @GuardianAfrica's Twit-interview with Ashish Thakkar, @AshishJThakkar https://t.co/0LN0Dat0Dn

@elnathan – A Nigerian satirist

Elnathan John, who describes himself as a satirist and recovering lawyer, is based in Abuja in Nigeria. Last week he found himself at the centre of storm after drawing comparisons between the response to Ebola in west Africa and a measles outbreak in north America. The Daily Mail accused him of being a troll, but he told the BBC he was trying to highlight “the danger of one dimensional narratives”.

We touched on this and discussed the mood Nigeria after the government took the decision to postpone presidential elections scheduled to take place this Sunday. Helpfully John used storify the condense the conversation himself so we didn’t have to.

@GuardianAfrica Interview with Elnathan John https://t.co/TVESgNiEg9 via @elnathan

If you’d like to suggest a future Twit-interviewee, please let us know in the comments below or on Twitter @GuardianAfrica.