Another reason to visit Africa

I'm sitting in a waiting area in the Pittsburgh International Airport as I write this. I had the privilege of attending PyCon US. It was fantastic and inspiring in many ways.

One of my personal highlights was a lightening talk - I usually try to do one, it's an extra opportunity to spread useful messages and add value. A lot of people came to talk to me about it afterwards (which is, to me, a measure of a good talk), I even got a complement from Guido (#swoon), so I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Picture this...

Having 5 minutes to get a message across is not a lot, so it's useful to win the audience's attention in the first couple of seconds. One good way to do this is by asking them to participate. So I asked them a few questions.

"How many of you have been to Africa?"

A few hands went up... hardly anyone.

"How many of you would like to visit Africa?"

Now most hands shot up, an overwhelming majority. This was not surprising at all. A lot of people are attracted to Africa because of the culture, wildlife, landscape and vegetation. Many parts of Africa are beautiful, these are all valid reasons.

But there is another reason to visit Africa:

For the Python

Africa is a big place, there are local Python communities scattered across the continent. People are using Python in novel ways to overcome local challenges, or in the pursuit of curiosity, play and art.

Visiting an African Python conference or community is likely to be quite a rich experience as compared to visiting Africa solely as a tourist. And of course making friends with the locals is a good way to enrich whatever post-conference touristing you want to take part in.

African travellers

I am an African - it might not be immediately obvious. My family has been in South Africa for multiple generations. South Africa is where I was born, it is where I will return to. It is my home.

I was not the only African in Pittsburgh, there were a handful of us from different places. Nigeria, Ghana, Namibia... a few countries were represented. We came far and invested a lot to be present.

Why did we come all this way?

For me, it was about meeting people, communicating and connecting. Others have their own reasons - the finer details may vary, but we all came to interact with the global Python community.

In my lightening talk I encouraged the audience to spot African community members and talk to them, talk to us. We came far to get to PyCon US. It's not just about the distance covered in an aeroplane - it's about the distance covered in a life.

How does a kid from Ghana become a Python programmer?

Why did a teacher from Namibia come all this way? And the professor from Nigeria?

What lessons do they want to take home? And what do they have to share? There's a whole world to be discovered.

PyCon US 2025 is over now - but it's not an end to these kinds of connections. There are many conferences, many gatherings of nerds and contributors. Many conversations to be had.

Be curious.

What's happening in Africa

So, do you want to come to Africa? Yes?

Would you come for the Python?

There are 2 big conferences coming up that you might be interested in:

DjangoCon Africa 2025

This is happening in Arusha, Tanzania. From 11 - 15 August.

This is the second ever DjangoCon Africa - I was able to attend the first DjangoCon Africa in 2023 and I can tell you that the experience was amazing. I made a lot of friends there, and a lot of stories. And I learned a thing or two about the lives of the people who attended.

PyCon Africa 2025

This one is happening in my home town - Johannesburg, South Africa. This will be happening in early October.

I am the local chair this year which is very exciting, and also a pretty scary (probably a healthy reaction...). The organising team is full of incredible people, and we are working hard.

If you are keen to do a talk or run a workshop, applications are open! Just create an account on our website and apply.

And if you work for an organisation that would benefit from having a presence at the conference, or would like to give back to and support the global Python community, we are looking for sponsors. You can see the different packages here.

Note: If your organisation is in Africa or South Africa then we do have discounted packages for the locals. Please get in touch if you have questions. You can get hold of me directly if you need to, I am happy to talk about this stuff.

Attending PyCon Africa 2025

If you are interested in attending PyCon Africa without doing a talk, I can highly recommend it. South Africa is underrated in a lot of ways - we have some of the best wine in the world, incredible landscapes - mountains, oceans and awe-inspiring wildlife (also penguins, who doesn't love penguins?). The food is great and the people are friendly, diverse and (mostly) very open-minded.

You can also attend remotely

If you are unable to make it to PyCon Africa physically, you can still attend the event and interact with the PyCon Africa community.

Our video streaming game is on point and our remote ticket-holders will be able to watch all of the things live and participate in online interactions.

If you are a part of a local Python user group or meetup, get some African-inspired snacks and a few friends and enjoy the conference with your people. It's a great way to support us from afar - there are voices here in Africa that deserve to be heard and amplified.

We have the technology to make this a global community.

Join us! 🐧