Made of Africa: Elon Musk- BY MARK OMODIA (GUEST WRITER SERIES)

This is a series that casts a spotlight on personalities of African origin or individuals that have some relevant
connection to the continent. Whether they acknowledge it or not they are "Made of Africa".

This is about Elon Musk, the man who some
liken to Tony Stark of Marvel studio's Iron man.

His name is Elon Reeve Musk and he currently has a net worth of about 12.3 billion US dollars. He is the founder of
SpaceX and the co-founder of Zip2, Paypal, Tesla motors and Solar city. Zip2 and Paypal were sold off but Mr Musk is in charge of the others (bear in mind that they were not
founded around the same time).
Quite the visionary, the companies he started are not your normal contemporary companies.

SPACEX designs, manufactures and launches advanced spacecraft. It is also a space transport company which transports cargo to space stations and even plans on commercial transport of passengers in future. As you would imagine, it has collaborated with other giants like NASA and the United States Air force on several projects.

Solar city, the company he co-founded
with his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive, provides solar power to customers as against Hydro electric or nuclear
power.

Tesla motors is an electric car manufacturer which has already carved a niche for itself in the automobile industry.
As if these three companies were not great enough, he has proposed a project called the 'Hyperloop'. He hopes this would be another means of transportation and a faster one at that.
In 2010, Elon Musk was one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. He was named by Esquire
magazine as one of the 75 most influential people in the 21st century. In 2011, Forbes magazine listed him as one of
the 20 most powerful CEOs under forty and in 2013, Fortune magazine named him business person of the year.
As every successful man,the 44 year old has bagged several awards and doctorates.
He may be some hot shot today, but Mr Musk was born in South Africa to a South African father and a Canadian
mother. Today he is known as a South African, Canadian American and he lives in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California in
the United States.
Though unfortunately he does not owe his success to the continent, it is still safe to say that there is something made of Africa in him.