The Art of Touching in Three Seconds

In her new column Duanju Meet Africa, journalist and Africa correspondent Blessing Azugama explores the revolution of short-form storytelling across the continent. She begins with a striking observation: in today’s attention economy, the force that defines every creator’s visibility online, the length of a story no longer determines its impact. What matters now is the ability to captivate within the first three seconds.

Blessing notes that fast and emotional storytelling has always been part of African culture. In markets and family gatherings alike, the art of narration thrives through stories filled with rhythm, tension, and emotion. This instinct to seize the listener from the very first line already foreshadows what micro-dramas achieve today on screens: intensity that is condensed, immediate, and visceral.

According to her, emerging platforms like ReelShort and DramaBox show that a big screen is no longer required to move or surprise an audience, only a big feeling. With its wealth of languages and styles, Africa is uniquely positioned to thrive in this new era of vertical storytelling. “In the attention economy,” she reminds us, “victory doesn’t belong to the longest story, but to the one that moves us first.”

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