Emoji a day reveals an Africa that is ‘cool’

● It began as a personal challenge and now a young Ivorian artist is taking the world by storm with his funky set of emojis that celebrate life in Africa.

O’Plérou Grebet, 21, a student in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, decided that each day he would design an emoji that reflected daily life.

From a bag of purple hibiscus juice, to a man carrying a sewing machine, to a bowl of delicious foutou (mashed plantain and cassava), he turned what he saw around him into tiny digital masterpieces.

“I wanted to show a positive side of Africa because I was tired of seeing stories in the media about war, hunger, poverty, and poor sick children, or else savannas and safaris, whenever I searched ‘Africa’ on Google,” he told the Sunday Times.

Grebet said he hoped his work would change “the stereotypical idea of Africa that non-Africans have”, and would also “make Africans with low self-esteem become proud of their origins” by seeing how “cool” their cultures are.

His favourite one is the Zaouli, a mask from the Gouro people.

“To me it represents creativity … and promotes ideas of freedom and wisdom.”

There’s also the Bissap (purple hibiscus juice) that evokes childhood memories.

“It is a soft drink sold near schools or in the streets. I love it because I remember buying it after class, since kindergarten, and even now when I find it, I love it.”

Another favourite is the “you saw that?” emoji, which he describes as an Ivorian facial expression meaning “I told you so”.

For South African artist Neeske Alexander, who used art processes to research children’s attitudes towards skin tone and race, when emojis become more representative, they should be celebrated.

“In today’s world, much of our communication includes visual elements — and children in particular are increasingly exposed to these elements,” she said, “Emojis are so much more than simple comic-like images without cultural weight.”

She said that “when culture-specific emojis are available, it helps children to express their racial and cultural identity and can aid them in building a positive self-image”.

Though Grebet’s emojis are entirely unique, they’re also part of a broader global conversation about how identity is represented through the shorthand of social media.

Apple recently expanded its emoji suite to include 328 new nonbinary versions of almost every one of its human emojis.

Google had done the same for Android in May.

Though many social media platforms have bred a culture of trolling and prejudice, emojis have had a positive impact.

A recent study by the University of Edinburgh found that emoji characters with adapted skin tones “are used positively and are rarely abused”, according to the researchers who trawled through more than a billion tweets since the diverse skin tones were introduced in 2015.