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Kudzai Mpangi, Sunday Life Reporter
CELEBRATED award-winning Bulawayo-born author and playwright, Christopher Mlalazi has developed a mobile photo sharing application called Afromera meant for African people.
Currently-based in Germany, Mlalazi said the app was the first of its kind, created solely for the African consumer after realising that no such application has been done by Africans for Africans. Mlalazi is studying towards a degree in Computer Science and that influenced his decision to come up with that creation.
“I created Afromera so that people could share their photos. I specifically noticed that there were no apps like that made in Africa or for Africa, and I decided to introduce the very first,” Mlalazi said.
“I am currently studying towards a Degree in Computer Science and these studies gave me the desire and know how to come up with this app. I am in my second year now.”
The prolific author got his inspiration after realising that most apps that are used in Africa are developed in the West for the West. This gave him a reason to develop a locally “brewed” app created in the African context and taking into consideration African culture.
Having completed the app two weeks ago, the app has already begun to get its fair share of users and also is receiving positive criticism.
“Afromera is a two-week old app, the response has been overwhelming, as so far we have had a good run with around 300 daily users of the site,” he said.
The website was been named in honour of Africa and its “Africanness”.
“Afromera is short for Afro Camera without the ‘ca’, of Africa Camera, which simply means ‘for the African people’. However, I will be introducing my creation to the broader world so that we see the reaction towards Afromera the photo sharing app,” Mlalazi said.
Mlalazi expressed hope that his app will be well received by the world like his literary works that have been well received by people all over the world.
“This is a creation that I hope will be used by people from all creeds but mostly my African brothers, much like my creative writing. Some of my books are studied in universities while some of my plays have toured the continent and the world. My work speaks for itself and I hope that my app will also be as well received soon as I introduce it to the world,” he said.
The new creation has influenced Mlalazi to pen yet another novel.
“I am actually writing a new novel right now, and trying to infuse my new software engineering into its creation, and the result I think, is going to be very interesting,” he said.
Mlalazi said he has grown to love the person that he has become given how he started studying in the bush behind Emakhandeni suburb to introducing artistic and software products on global platforms.
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