Zouzoukwa is a DAO promoting African cultures diversity through emojis & cultural content, and onboarding people from Africa to crypto/web3.
Started as an illustration project to change how Africa is perceived, Zouzoukwa aims to flip the script on Africa using crypto, art, & design to empower a young generation willing to change things & develop the continent.
Background
2017–2019: Genesis of the emoji project
Zouzoukwa is a project I started because I was tired of seeing the media representing my continent with a stereotypical and negative narrative based on hunger, war, and poverty. Aware of the impact representation can have on the way people perceive the world & how they act, I decided to create every day of 2018 a new emoji to show a different side of the story by showcasing modern & traditional cultures from the continent.
2019–2022: From a one-person project to a community project
At the end of the challenge, I realized that what I made was not exactly like what I had in mind: I wanted Zouzoukwa to be a Pan-African project, but most of the emojis I designed represented West Africa and I was basically the only one deciding on which element should be an emoji. To grow, Zouzoukwa has to become a movement built by a community of users voting themselves on what element should be “emojified” and being rewarded for their participation with a social token: $ZOU.
The Mission of Zouzoukwa DAO
- Promote Africa’s cultural diversity through emojis, stickers, gifs, fonts and other digital communication tools & products
- Onboard people from the continent to web3/crypto in local languages
- Have a tangible impact on the continent through grants and other social initiatives
Crowdfund Goals & Plan
- The 15 ETH raise will allow me to work full time for Zouzoukwa, hire developers and designers to build the first product of the DAO and mint all the original 365 emojis on Foundation
- $ZOUZOUKWA tokens represent governance rights and membership in the DAO
- 80% of $ZOUZOUKWA will be held by the DAO, and a portion will be airdropped to early active community members to give them governance rights
- Backers will have access to a special Discord channel
- Backers will have more voting power/impact according to the edition they have
What’s next?
After the crowdfund and the NFT Collection on Foundation, we are going to hire developers and designers to create zouzoukwa.africa, a collaborative platform where people can explore the emojis, learn about the elements they represent, read articles written by the Editorial Team, submit emojis proposals and vote for the proposals to expand the project.
About the NFT Collection
I will release the emojis by daily batches of 14, and they will be priced according to their popularity on Instagram.
PostEngagementRate = (Likes+Comments)/FollowersCount
BasePrice= PostEngagementRate * 5
ListPrice = BasePrice + FoundationFees
Why you should buy an emoji?
Buying an emoji is being a patron of the African Digital Renaissance era. As soon as an emoji is bought, it will be licensed under Creative Commons CC0, the most open legal way an artist can remove his copyright from his work. It will allow anybody to use the emojis how they want, even for commercial purposes, without having to ask for permission.
Just like the Mona Lisa example, the holder of a Zouzoukwa NFT will be the only one having ownership on it without limiting its usage by everyone, thus increasing its value. Emojis will become a kind of public good.
Get in touch
If you have any questions about the project or want to be involved, you can join the Discord or follow Zouzoukwa on Twitter or Instagram ✨
Press✨
“You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.” — Thomas Sankara