(A column highlighting scientific, technological, engineering, and design innovation in Africa)
DreamAfrica is a mobile subscription platform that lets children read, watch and listen to original, authentic African stories at home and in school in and outside of Africa.
Referred to as a “digital griot” after the title given to official storytellers in traditional African society, DreamAfrica is a product of The Pearl Dream Inc., a U.S.- and Kenya-based company established in 2013 by Kenyan-born Franco Abott, the company’s CEO, and Ugandan-born Brian Asingia, chief operating officer. The two met at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, where Abott graduated with a degree in computer science and Asingia with dual degrees in engineering and economics.
Until recently Abott was a senior project software engineer at Lutron Electronics Inc., a U.S. manufacturer of lighting controllers. Asingia still works full time for the New York Stock Exchange. They state on The Pearl Dream® website that the idea for the DreamAfrica app was born out of the concern of 500 million parents of African descent who want their children to grow up connected with their storytelling heritage but are unable to find the right digital content on mainstream media, the founders say
“The trigger was the need for broader distribution of African content and lack of access to authentic African stories at home and school across borders. Only 10 percent of books published in the US in the last four years were by diverse authors,” Asingia told AfricaStrictlyBusiness.com in an email interview.
Stories provided by African authors and content creators can be accessed via DreamStories for ebooks and comics, DreamRadio for audiobooks and soundtracks, and DreamTV for animation and videos. A gaming experience called DreamPlay already is in the works.
With visions of becoming the Disney of Africa, DreamAfrica was officially launched at the 2014 Demo Africa, the annual launch pad for technological innovation by African startups, where it emerged among the top 40 innovations for the year. In April 2015 it was selected to participate in the inaugural 2015 class of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Program, a $100 million initiative of Nigerian billionaire Tony Elumelu to discover and support 10,000 African entrepreneurs over the next decade.
For the app’s creators, the main challenge now is securing all of the necessary funding for expansion.
