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Images by O’Plérou Grebet
A creative graphic designer known as O’Plérou Grebet designed some ‘African Emojis‘ that reflect the culture of Ivory Coast, his home country and the entire West Africa. In an effort to correct mainstream media’s inaccurate depictions, the inventive design thinker has created over 370 designs that portray contemporary African life.
The graphic designer’s full set of emojis are called ‘zouzoukwa‘ which means ‘picture’ in Bété, the speaking language of the Bété people from the South-Western Ivory Coast. The emojis are available to be downloadedon the play and app store, and can be used on Whatsapp as stickers or standalone images. So far, O’Plérou Grebet designed hold a record of massive downlodas by the users of smart phones worldwide.
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In the year 2018, he createda new addition to his exclusive African emojis following a daily challenge set for himself, covering topics that included food, music and transportation. His amazing designs includes a plastic teakettle sold in Senegalese markets, traditional percussion instruments and ‘Garba’, a popular Ivorian meal consisting of semolina and fried tuna.
A mask and a traditional dance of the Guro people called Zaouli is another object that originates from his home country Ivory Coast. In addition to his exclusive designs like ‘Keke Napep’, a popular mode of transport in Nigeria; Kita or Kenté, a colorful loincloth worn in the southern regions of present-day Ghana; and Mémorial Gorée-alm, a slave trade memorial on the island of Gorée in Senegal.
Though Grebet’s designs weren’t official emojis as at then, because they were yet to be approved by the Unicode Consortium, an organization that reviews and approves new designs. Today, I believe that his designs might have been approved following the subject submission to the body as he’s honoring the many facets of African tradition and its contemporary condition, with a strong intent to travel to more African countries to discover their cultures and turning them into African emojis.
