A content creator dances under a heart-shaped floral archway at Magic Land amusement park in Abuja, Nigeria in June  2025. The west African nation is considered a success story: a tech powerhouse, a major exporter of global cultural staples like Afrobeats, and the 4th largest economy in Africa.
Photo credit: Olympia de Maismont/AFP/Getty Images 

Why simplicity wins in Africa’s communication landscape

Across Africa, a quiet yet powerful shift is underway in how people communicate. From TikTok videos to WhatsApp voice notes, young professionals, market vendors, farmers, students, and boda boda riders are sharing and consuming content that is short, visual, engaging, and often in their own languages.

This shift is not happening because people cannot understand complex language. It is happening because people are making smart choices—they want clarity, usefulness, and authenticity. In today’s fast-moving world, simplicity communicates powerfully. In most cases, complexity does not make a message smarter; it just makes it harder to understand.

Yet many organisations—especially in the development, donor, and policy sectors—are still relying on communication models that are no longer effective. Reports full of jargon. Brochures with technical terms. Press statements that sound like legal memos. These materials often miss their mark, especially with the very people they are meant to reach.

Meanwhile, audiences are busy scrolling, skipping, swiping, and tuning out.

Simplifying your message is not the same as watering it down. In fact, it takes real expertise to convey a big idea in simple terms. Simplicity shows mastery, not mediocrity.

Today, most Africans access information via mobile phones. Many are on limited data. They may be in noisy environments, commuting, working, or multitasking. That 10-page PDF you spent a week polishing? It is not going to be read. That 45-minute Zoom session? It is being skipped for a quick, subtitled video that gets to the point in 60 seconds.

What works now is clear, human-centred communication. This includes a skit in Swahili by a local TikToker teaching financial literacy, a WhatsApp voice note in Hausa reminding farmers of market days, an SMS in Amharic with a direct call to action or a short video by a health worker explaining vaccine benefits in their own voice. These are the tools that cut through the noise, build trust, and spark action.

So, how can organisations adapt?

We need to start listening. Do not begin with a blank Word document and a branding manual. Ask: What are people already talking about? What platforms do they use? Who do they trust? This insight will reveal more about your audience than any media plan could.

Then, bring in people who understand how information flows in the real world. Community-based content creators, local radio hosts, youth influencers, WhatsApp group admins—these are your communication allies. They know what sticks, what spreads, and what gets ignored.

It is true that, as organisations, we fear going “off-brand” or losing control of our messages. However, over-controlling communication leads to messages that sound robotic and disconnected. Instead of silencing local voices, create clear guidelines and then allow teams to adapt them to their specific context. Let the office in Kisumu post in Swahili. Let field agents shoot simple videos. Let community partners shape your message in a tone that resonates with their audience.

In a continent as youthful, diverse, and mobile as Africa, your message is only as strong as your audience’s ability to absorb it. We are no longer in the age where heavy documents and formal statements drive impact. We are in an era where communication must be both quick and clear, yet also human.