Bringing Africa and Atlanta Together...One Esports Challenge At A Time
Kenyan President William Ruto was in Atlanta last month for a diplomatic visit that took him to places like the Spelman College, the CDC, and Tyler Perry Studios to discuss Kenya-US connections around education, health, and the entertainment sector.
Ruto got to meet with Atlanta leaders like Senior Technology Advisor Donnie Beamer and Mayor Andre Dickens. And he got to connect with other members of the Kenyan diaspora living in the city. One such person was Andrew Muriuki, an entrepreneur looking to use esports to help young people in his home country of Kenya connect with opportunities in the US through his Atlanta-based startup BARBAH Games.
Yes, esports can be lucrative, with college scholarships and major prize money given out at tournaments across the world. But the industry’s market size is expected to reach close to $7 billion by 2030, and has become a hub employment sector for creatives and technologists alike.
With a collaboration with Atlanta-based TechnOrganic, BARBAH Games is looking to help young people in Africa to the opportunities provided in esports and the gaming world. Strategically, Muriuki is focused on introducing young people to Fortnite, a popular gaming platform. Although it is not all too popular in Africa yet, Muriuki believes that Disney's collaboration with the Fortnite’s owner Epic Games could help boost its fanbase internationally.
Connecting Atlanta and African youths is strategic, added Muriuki. Atlanta has long been an esports hub, and has been named one of the best cities for gamers while also providing new educational programs for game designers. The city itself has leaned into gaming as a way to improve Atlanta’s infrastructure.
It is not just about teaching young people the skills needed to win a game. Fortnite has become a financial driver and monetization tool for people in the creative economy. Gamers can create drag-and-drop maps and make money as more people join their created worlds. Muriuki believes esports can be an entry point for gamifying education while ultimately teaching about technology and artificial intelligence (AI). Crucially, he sees it as a way to nurture critical thinking, community, and other core skills needed for the future workforce.
Muriuki spent two decades in the hospitality industry before striking out on his own in the esports space. But he’s wasted no time ingraining himself in the startup world, and is currently going through Founder Institute, a popular pre-seed startup accelerator. He said the Kenyan President visit last month was also particularly helpful as he looks to position the startup on the global stage. He told Hypepotamus that having Ruto in Atlanta and partaking in several of the events around his visit helped him see “on a global level about how the world is thinking about the creative economy.”
