ABOUT US

Read African! AfroStory is Africa’s Best, Quality All-in-one Reading App. Easy-to-use, it works on 99% of African phones, from iPhone to Mobicel, Offline and with Read Aloud. 1 MEG books. No subscriptions, no hidden costs. The collection grows so you SAVE MONEY! Know your History and Culture with AfroStory.com.

 

Knowledge is Power. We are here to educate, empower and entertain. Our rare collection is rare due to the historic suppression of African literature among People of colour.

Version 4 (Copyright AfroStory Pty Ltd October 2022*)

Lead Developer:         Piyush Poriya
CTO:                             Norman Hooper
Head Designer:           Robyn Schaffner
Director:                    John d Ashmore
User Research:           welcome Makele

Content Production and Selection:        
Stacey Fru, Victorine Mbong Shu, Dorcas Gwenhure, John Ashmore, Hombakazi Mercy Nqandeka, Ryan Fortune, Carolyn Kentrotas, Phindiwe Bambata, Oberon StoiLOV.

* Original Copyrights, with first published version (V1.2): 2020.


1. DISCLAIMER

The books in the Members’ Section (100+) are to our knowledge (and following our own desktop research) public domain books and thus we are free to distribute them in the existing form and format. Please direct any queries to us at www.afrostory.com and we will attend to them as quickly as we can. Sincerely, Team AfroStory. Let’s get Africa reading more, together and as one!

The contents are free to enjoy. The lists of literature, sub-lists of literature, and App idea itself including design, function and concept are copyrighted Intellectual Property owned by: AfroStory (Pty) Ltd., 2022. All rights reserved.

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Examples of the concept include the app working on all phones down to Android 5, the offline reading function, use of previously unavailable African Classic literature, simple design using old technology for the social purpose of mass reading by African people, and REAL use of PDF technology and page-turning PDF technology, inter alia.

2. Mission Statement

AfroStory® (Pty) Ltd is an Ethical, African business that aims to get a billion books in African homes by the end of 2023 (100 books x 10 million users). We have done away with annual subscriptions, and only charge for new books, with full access for all members to a GROWING digital library of 83 high-quality books (5 new books added per month).

We are here to make this quality, rare set of mainly African literature available to all as conveniently and affordably as possible, using state-of-the-art software made to work on any phone, selling new books to members at rock bottom prices that benefit authors more than the company, and are committed to accepting payments without the need for a bank account at all (we do this via Google Payments).

We launched the company from Khayelitsha, have strong links with prominent African Authors, work closely with our brothers and sisters in Township locations and rural areas, and use a mass marketing, free and low-cost high-volume business model in order to attain our bold targets as well as scale.

We know from our research and experience that poorer people do not read because they do not want to, but because until now there has been no convenient access to relevant literature, backed by strong marketing that grows with sales. We provide The Best product and work with The Best in our field only, in terms of software, promotion, social media, design, advertising and other core business areas, and are a hot disruptor in the African literature market.


3. The Brand

AfroStory® - ‘Write Your Own Story’®. Read African!® Reading is Power!®

Our brand stands for pan-Africanism, Black Empowerment, promoting equality, racial integration not segregation, and something highly novel and in poor people’s (the majority of our consumers’) interests: Accessible Relevant Reading for all. We take the high road, Ethically, and are here to Write a New Story for Africa by targeting our product at those left behind by the current publishing industry (digital or otherwise), though it is slick enough even for iPhone users!

The company is 70% African citizen-owned. We have a humble cap on after-tax profits for each shareholder, and profit shares and shares have been generously allocated to all who helped AfroStory Ltd work towards our success. We are the good guys, basically, on the African publishing scene. We have 25,000 users at time of writing, growing quickly.


4. The Product

We launched our pilot product in late 2020, and the completely revised and improved AfroStory ‘Version 3’ on 9 Feb 2022, significantly revised by Sep 2022 as V4. We believe everyone, regardless of colour or class or gender or age or religion or reading ability, should access and benefit from our Excellent Library and Reading service we provide. Black People’s stories and lived experiences have something to teach everyone. We also do not believe that poorer people do not access literature because they do not want to, but through lack of convenient access and ability to pay. Learn your history and culture with AfroStory. The collection grows so you never have to buy another book. The focus of the collection is Quality above all else, which us Africans DESERVE.

We have shown, and continue to show, that there are many incredible, though rare, African classics that have stood the test of time to expand minds, horizons and open new doors; but most African readers stand to benefit from quality over quantity which is why we are so particular about the books we include. At the same time, we are always growing our quality, copyrighted list of all public domain African and Black literature (in and out of print), already collected and available through our software, and also sell new works by current African authors at the lowest prices (70% of the after-tax revenue from new books goes to the author).