The Heart of a Cheetah

How We Have Been Lied to About African Poverty, and What That Means for Human Flourishing

By: Magatte Wade

Narrated by: Magatte Wade

Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Experience the life story of Magatte Wade, the bold Senegalese entrepreneur and unflinching prosperity activist, determined to shape the destiny of her African homeland.

In this riveting memoir, Wade challenges Africans to redefine their narrative, casting aside imposed inferiority to reclaim their innate brilliance.

This is not a recounting of poverty and politics. It's an indictment of a world that views Africa as nothing more than a colonial chessboard, with charity acting as the block that keeps Africans stuck.

The surprising truth: Africa’s problems are not due to colonialism, corruption, bad leadership, poor skills, or a lack of education. It’s something much bigger, and yet it’s only been visible to entrepreneurs...until now.

Join the movement for Africa's rightful place in the 21st century: fostering innovation, earning prosperity, and growing into an economic powerhouse. Wade's impassioned voice promises nothing less than the dawn of a new era, poised to reshape history, create prosperity and peace, and unleash Africa’s bright future.

©2023 Magatte Wade (P)2023 Magatte Wade

Doing business in Africa the right way

I have done NGO work in Africa for 7 years, and trying to do it “the right way” through empowerment and not parachute projects. I really appreciated Ms Wade’s empowered voice for her continent. I am definitely signing up to be part of the Cheetah generation and encouraging all our local leaders to read her book as well to join this force for good. I also envision that as we use these principles to empower people, we will lift the world as a whole.

When you hear the truth, you just recognize it

This book by Maggatte Wade is unconventional in that it tackles the issue of poverty in her native continent of Africa from an approach not of recrimination against the West or from a victim’s pov, like it’s common -and not helpful- but one of “what can I do so that these bad things do not happen to me again?” I like the author’s perspective of seeing things how they are, and the critical look and thinking outside the box. As someone from Spanish America I can relate, and see the same struggles that the Africans and we Hispanics suffer too.

A strong case for focusing on economic freedom in Africa mixing poignant personal stories with deep macroeconomic thinking

In this book, Magatte beautifully mixes raw, personal storytelling with sophisticated political and macroeconomic thinking to paint a positive, actionable vision of a prosperous Africa achievable within a few decades.

Rather than focusing on poverty reduction, a lot more energy should be spent on enabling wealth creation by African entrepreneurs.

I highly recommend this book, it gives a refreshing perspective on what it will take to develop a thriving, prosperous Africa over the next decades. Bravo!

Great hope for Africa’s future

Magatte Wade makes a strong case that wealth comes from entrepreneurs and poverty persists in African countries due to local governments strangling markets.

“I care about the combination of a big mind and a big heart.”

“What we’re doing can result in long-term improvements for the lives of people back home. …How did we get to believe that the only way to help Africa is by digging wells and then building some mud schools?”

“Buy our product because it is the best in the world…and it is from Africa.”

“Capitalism is a sine qua non for prosperity and well-being.”

Amazing Story and Manifesto for African Prosperity

If you want a memoir that is both touching and powerful in its message, as well as a brief overview of how to unleash African prosperity, this book is for you!

The Truth About Africa

Everything about Magatte is spectacular. She narrates her own story with perfection, which made listening to this book so easy. Her story is vivid as she gives enough detail to win our hearts. I have jumped at the opportunity to learn more about how we can make improvements with the cheetahs. Africa will not progress with aid. Business and capitalism is the answer!

African problems - African Solutions

This book really dives deep into African solutions for African problems. Great to hear Ms.Wade’s example on how she created a great African company. This book is especially great for young African entrepreneurs to learn the dos and don’ts in business. Now ready to become the next generation Cheetah!

A must read!

Magatte Wade presents a compelling vision for Africa that builds off her years as a Seneglese native, and successful entrepreneur. Meshing of her personal and world experiences provide a powerful and thought provoking narrative b

Revolutionary yet unintentionally patronizing

There is no doubt Magatte has a strong passion for African economic development as captured in this masterpiece of revolutionary and practical solutions to Africa's economic plight. However, as she rightly states in the book, our environment creates biases in our subconscious that can steer us to wrong judgement even unintentionally.

The Pros:
As a young African entrepreneur, "The Heart of a Cheetah" captured perfectly the real world landscape of entrepreneurship in most African countries including mine. Identifying the real pain points like what one can only term hyper beaucracy and regulations that stifle the much needed speed & flexibility for navigating the fast paced business world.

With proper diagnosis, she offers the almost obvious yet revolutionary solutions that would focus on wealth creation rather than poverty alleviation, making Africans the heroes of their own story rather than victims depending on messianic NGOs. Her personal stories are both emotionally touching and captivating and really help to drive every point home in a way I've not seen many books do. I loved it and actually wished it was longer but hopefully she'll be gracing us with more books in the future.

The Cons:
Bearing in mind the strong point of the book above, in my opinion, it somewhat shoots itself in the leg for the sake that it seems to be written and directed primarily to Western audiences than to actual African entrepreneurs. Of course, this is understandable as Magatte has spent much of her life and business career in Western society and Western organizations do have leverage to dictate policy over Africa via things like AID.

But if the key to Africa lies within Africa, too many appeals to altruistic forces/parties outside Africa ends up being just as patronizing and condescending like the messianic NGOs she points out.

To quote James Baldwin: “Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be”, I believe at the bottom line, African economic freedom and dignity can only come about from the taking of responsiblity by Africans beginning with their Leadership. The Leadership aspect may not be possible right away, but if we train the minds of the present African youth, within the next two generations, Africa's glory will emerge.

China, Singapore, the rich countries of the Gulf didn't rise thanks to altruism from the West, Africa shouldn't expect to be the exception. If we change and create conditions that favor businesses, even the most racist people will come to invest. Question is what do we have to offer beyond raw materials?

Overall I strongly recommend this book to all African Cheetahs out there, it may be a small step towards tackling this problem but in time, it is a giant leap towards Africa's economic freedom. Thank you for this masterpiece Magatte!!!

I’m convinced

A compelling persuasion from a practical mind that is aware of the main way to unleash African prosperity: capitalism.
Because the author is loyal to her native land and optimistic of the capabilities of Africans,
she enumerates logically, personally and historically that “trade is better than aid” and wealth creation works better than poverty reduction.

Read by the author, her delivery is stirring and her sincerity is a force. Her own mind was changed. Mine is too. I went off to absorb the resources mentioned in her work.

She is well researched and has enough vision for many to follow.