Campus Tour: Rust Africa

Rust Africa Campus Tour: Empowering the Next Generation

Over the past few months, Rust Africa has been on an ambitious journey: taking the Rust programming language directly to campuses across the continent. The Rust Africa Campus Tour is more than a series of visits — it’s a movement to empower the next generation of African developers with tools, skills, and community centered around Rust.

Why a Campus Tour?

Campuses are the breeding ground for tomorrow’s software engineers, innovators, and open-source contributors. The Rust Africa Campus Tour was born from the belief that exposure to modern, powerful, and safe programming languages like Rust can unlock new levels of creativity and capability among African students

What Happens on the Tour?

Each stop on the tour includes a carefully curated mix of interactive workshops, technical talks, live coding sessions, and community building activities. Students are introduced to:

• The fundamentals of the Rust programming language
• How Rust compares with other languages like C++
• Real-world applications of Rust (web, embedded systems, blockchain, etc.)
• Open source contribution and Rust community involvement

Where We've Been

THE BUIDL

The BUIDL is a technical hub at the forefront of accelerating Rust education in Northern Nigeria, particularly in Kaduna. With a strong focus on open-source contributions and embedded systems, they have embraced Rust as a foundational skill for building safe and high-performance applications in resource-constrained environments.

Rust Africa, through its close collaboration with Rust Nigeria, has played a pivotal role in amplifying BUIDL's initiatives. Together, we've supported their weekly Rust classes, community meetups, and hands-on workshops that empower learners to apply Rust in areas such as embedded systems, systems programming, and real-world problem-solving. Our shared mission is to bridge the knowledge gap by equipping students and early developers with practical Rust expertise that opens doors to modern, reliable, and scalable technology development.

University of Benin (UNIBEN)

Our partnership with the department of Computer Engineering at the University of Benin has enabled us to birth a strong Rust developer community within the school.

Since our initial engagement in 2024, Rust Africa has worked hand in hand with Rust Nigeria to introduce students to Rust through study groups, and department-backed workshops.

A major milestone in this collaboration was the introduction of Rust Nigeria internships for UNIBEN students. These internships provided hands-on experience with real-world Rust projects, mentorship from industry professionals, and a deeper understanding of Rust’s practical applications in software engineering. This initiative gave students direct exposure to the ecosystem while nurturing their growth into confident, job-ready Rust developers. By integrating Rust into embedded systems projects and training sessions, students are now exploring the power of Rust in low-level programming, IoT development, and real-time systems. We look forward to seeing what this rapidly growing hub becomes in the future.

Jacky Felly Nafack Hightech University Institute (JFN HUI)

Through Rust Cameroon's lead efforts, we were able to sponsor and facilitate a 48 hour hackfest in Douala, Cameroon. The team introduced Rust to a diverse audience of students, developers, and tech enthusiasts at Jacky Felly Nafack Hightech University Institute. As part of the Rust Africa Tour, this event marked a significant moment in expanding Rust’s presence in Central Africa. The reception was overwhelmingly positive and participants were excited to learn about Rust for the first time, especially its focus on safety, performance, and reliability. Many attendees had never used a low-level language before, but were captivated by how Rust offers safety without sacrificing speed. Other workshops and presentations showcased how to build and set up secure digital solutions for small and medium-sized businesses in Cameroon. The event highlighted the growing appetite for Rust across Africa and showcased how Rust Africa is playing a crucial role in bridging knowledge gaps, empowering local communities, and inspiring the next generation of Rustaceans.

PROMOTIC

PROMOTIC, an educational institution focused on producing industry-ready developers, is boldly championing Rust education in Francophone Africa. Backed by our partnership, they launched the PROMOTIC | Rust Developer Group; an initiative aimed at bringing together developers passionate about Rust, not only in Togo, but across Africa.This group serves as a platform for Sharing knowledge, Organizing workshops, Collaborating on open-source projects. Since becoming an associate member of the Rust Foundation, PROMOTIC has made relentless efforts to integrate Rust into their curriculum. They describe this partnership as a natural extension of a strategy focused on technological excellence.

“Adopting Rust in our curriculum reflects our commitment to training young people in the languages ​​of tomorrow. This gives them a competitive edge in the job market.”
— DEGBE Komlan André, Senior Developer and Education Manager at PROMOTIC

“We have always sought to align our activities with the most advanced technologies. Rust, through its efficiency and security, allows us to meet the technical challenges of tomorrow.”
— Amza Oussey, Tech Advisor at PROMOTIC

Powered by Community and Collaboration

The Rust Africa Campus Tour wouldn’t be possible without the consistent support of individuals and community partners who believe in our mission. This initiative has been largely driven by the efforts of our project leads: Mordecai Etukudo and Enow Scott. Their commitment has helped turn vision into action — coordinating logistics, connecting with local groups, and ensuring each tour stop delivers real value.

Equally vital are the passionate local developer communities who work behind the scenes to organize events, mentor learners, and keep the momentum going. Each stop on this journey reflects community synergy. From educators and student clubs to open-source contributors and grassroots organizers. Rust Africa provides the spark, but it’s the collective effort that keeps the flame burning. We’re excited about what lies ahead, and we're ready to do even more.

What’s Next?

This is just the beginning.

In future tours, Rust Africa plans to expand the tour to tech hubs in:

• Kenya
• Ghana
• Rwanda
• South Africa

The goal is clear: to ensure that Rust has a home in every country and a tech ecosystem across Africa. But to do more, we need more. To deepen our impact, we must go beyond tours. We need:

• Sustained mentorship
• Access to hardware for embedded development
• Funding for student-led Rust clubs
• Internship pipelines
• Institutional partnerships to formally adopt Rust into academic curricula

There is immense untapped talent on this continent. With the right support, we can equip thousands of students with the tools they need to build safe, performant, and globally relevant software all while growing Africa’s influence in open-source.

Get Involved

By introducing Rust to students and developers across the continent, we’re laying the foundation for a future where African Rustaceans are:

• Building the tools of tomorrow
• Contributing to open-source
• Leading communities of their own.

The Rust Africa Campus Tour is a bold step towards a future where African developers are not just consumers of technology, but key contributors to global innovation — and Rust is a big part of that journey.

We’re actively looking for:

• Academic institutions ready to host Rust events
• Companies willing to provide technical mentorship or internships
• Sponsors to fund travel, learning kits, and community resources
• Volunteers and advocates to help spread the word

Join us — let’s build the future of Rust in Africa together.

For more information or to join our initiatives, contact us at:
📧 Email: contact@rustafrica.org