2,030 Abibisika (Black Gold) Points

Rank: Unranked Newbie

21 year old O’ Plerou Grebet created emojis with West Afrikan cultural references. From the Ivory Coast he aims to study 3D design and virtual reality so he can find new ways of honouring Afrikan tradition. His invention known as “Zouzoukwa” Afrikan emojis has more than 350 downloadable emojis. In a bid to create something Afrikans can relate to, Grebet, a Graphic designer was motivated to develop these emojis which comprise images like Afrikan food dishes like Garba, woro-woro (communal taxis of Abidjan), national monuments and traditional costumes of different communities or typical expressions like “You saw, right? and darkskinned Afrikan people making faces.

Reacting to the wide acceptance of his invention, Grebet born to a civil servant father and optician mother, both retired noted that when he launched his project in January 2018, he knew that ” it would please, but not so much.” “Zouzoukwa” means “image” in the Bete language. He had a simple concept to publish an emoticon (or smiley) inspired by the Ivorian culture and society of today every day for one year on social networks. Each emoticon is numbered, captioned sometimes explained and they are currently available on android devices.

The Zouzoukwa idea came to him “like that, all of a sudden,” during a conversation with a friend on WhatsApp. “Seeing all the smileys embedded in the application, I thought that I was missing some to describe our Ivorian realities, to make our jokes. And I thought I could create it myself!” he said. Even when it was barely published in 2008, the first drawings caught the attention of internet users and local media. More than 1,000 likes on Instagram for the first emoticon representing the inevitable balls of foutou.

He soon got acknowledged for his invention at the meeting place for digital actors in French-speaking Afrika, when he won the Young Talent Award at Afrika Digital Communication Days (Adicom Days). He went on to collaborate with the French Channel Canal+, which used some of his “made in Ivo” emoticons on social networks during the football World Cup in June and July. He also collaborated with an Ivorian brand of clothing and accessories, Imalk Concept which use Zouzoukwa smileys on bags.

” I won two awards for my creations, The next step for me after Zouzoukwa, is to learn about 3D and Virtual Reality in order to create filters and find a new way to pay tribute to the Afrikan culture”, he indicated. His biggest dream he says is to “Create an application through which Zouzoukwa can be used by anyone on a phone. And why not one day, whether they are directly integrated with phones or in applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram or Facebook Messenger, there finally, the loop would be buckled.”