Book of African records readies second edition, mobile app
LOCAL publishing house, Book of African Records (BAR) says it is polishing its second edition which could hit the market in the next few weeks.
The first edition, published in 2016, became the pride of Zimbabwe after it became the first ever book adopted by the African Union Commission as an example of African content that speaks to African needs.
While presenting the first edition of the Book of African Records to 55 African Heads of State and Government in Kigali in 2016, Nkosazana DlaminiZuma, then chairperson of the African Union Commission said “This historic publication is a wonderful piece of intellect, education, reference and inspiration”
In a statement yesterday, BAR CEO and pan-Africanist Kwame Muzawazi said the new publication will take Afrocentric content to a new level.
“After we published the first edition, we have taken time to collect new facts and what we have on the table is mind-blowing. Readers will know from the new content that the first person to travel across the world was actually an African called Ibn Battuta from Morocco. Not Christopher Columbus as our children are made to believe in schools. Readers will also know that the light bulb and electricity as we know it today was invented through the patents of Lewis Latimer a black American, not Thomas Edison. There are hundreds and hundreds of new facts which show that the leader of world civilisation has always been and is Africa.
Meanwhile BAR second edition will be launched together with a mobile app called Lumo that they say promises to take the way publishers get content to readers to a new level. “We have discovered that readership has migrated from traditional printed books to smartphones. Lumo is technology that will bring our content, and indeed content from other creators, to the smartphone. In fact Lumo will usher in a new mobile experience.
“We are in discussions with a local mobile operator and partners, and soon with networks in a few other African countries, for joint ventures on this interactive technology.”