The hope and hype about African digital entrepreneurship, contrasted with the reality on the ground in local ecosystems. In recent years, Africa has seen a digital entrepreneurship boom, with hundreds of millions of dollars poured into tech cities, entrepreneurship trainings, coworking spaces,...

Hopes and Potentials -- Taking Stock -- Bounded Opportunities -- Viable Strategies -- Uneven Ecosystems -- Transitioning Identities -- Silicon Tensions -- Ways Forward -- Appendix A: Methodology -- Appendix B: Case Study Notes and Market Data.

"Digital entrepreneurship has often been viewed as a game changer for African development. Empowered by a single smartphone, the thinking goes, an individual entrepreneur can lay the groundwork for the next Amazon or Apple, and this will jumpstart economic progress on the entire continent....