In celebration of Africa Day (Wednesday 25th May) NewComma, the Pan-African social media platform for creatives, has launched a collection of GIFs inspired by African pidgin and slang,  to announce the integration of Giphy on its web app. 

As the digital divide continues to close and more Africans develop an active social media presence, representation across social channels that facilitate interactions are more necessary than ever.

As a result, NewComma has sought the help of five creatives from all over the African continent to collaborate on this project to connect creatives to each other and further African narratives on global channels. The creatives selected were:

· Bridget Wainaina (Kenya) - NewComma | Instagram - digital artist born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. She began pursuing digital art in 2020 as a medium of communication and storytelling, inspired by lifestyle, fashion, personal experiences and her heritage.

· Kamo Frank (South Africa) - NewComma | Instagram - freelance illustrator and graphic artist from South Africa. Kamo Frank is inspired by the need to amplify women in a buoyant and bold way through the use of colour in all her illustrations and designs.

· Kaz Aninkorah (Ghana) - NewComma | Instagram - self taught Visual Artist and Designer based in Accra, Ghana. I specialise in using strong, vibrant imagery and functional design to help brands communicate with their audiences. When I'm not busy showing off my broad skill set and great eye for detail, I like to sit at the beach and stare at the sea, meditate, inhale a few pizzas and drink iced coffee.

· Kipkirui Clement (Kenya)  - NewComma | Instagram - Kenyan design enthusiast who loves experimenting with typography, an avid reader and is always open to learning and meeting new people.

· Amina Gimba (Nigeria)  - NewComma | Instagram - trained at the Kwame Nkrumah University in Ghana and the Florence Design Academy in Italy, Amina is a visual artist and freelance graphic designer in Abuja, Nigeria who specialises in simplifying everyday experiences into provocative artistic pieces, using ink, colour pencils, crayons, tie and dye, and graphic design software.

The creatives came together to create a new set of GIFs inspired by African pidgin. Pidgin English is a mixture of English and local languages which enables people that do not share a common language to communicate. Most African countries are made up of numerous different ethnic groups who do not necessarily have a lingua franca, so Pidgin has developed across various regions.

It is widely spoken in Nigeria, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. However, there are distinctive elements in each region as English is mixed with different languages that are usually mutually intelligible. Although it is a popular mode of communication across the African continent, it does not have a significant presence in graphic digital communications like GIFs. The sticker pack was created to encourage more African expressions on digital channels.

The sticker pack is available now and can be found by typing in “NewComma” on any Giphy search base including the integration on the NewComma web app.