by Akinwande Jordan
The impulse to write is a time-old stimulus. One that has spawned civilization’s most rudimentary pieces of technologies; the paper and the pen. It’s almost unimaginable to conceive a world without the written word. It feels unbiblical, hideous, and bizarre to conceptualize civilization without its texts, writs, and famed compendiums.
Even as we bear witness to the slow eradication of print media globally, we are still by and large driven by an evolutionary reverence for the written word. In our part of the hemisphere, writing was once often regarded as the holy venture of the high-minded intellectuals and media elite — the Soyinkas, the Dele Giwas and the Reuben Abatis but on a planet simultaneously expanding and compressing, African writers of all strata should be opportuned to correspond with the world of tomorrow. This is the defining philosophy of Iko as designed by Emmanuel Eyo, Josephine Obasi Inika, and Shalom Effiom.
In the endless sea of startups, IKO AFRICA — the cutting-edge brainchild of the aforementioned three, is a digital publishing and literary platform that is currently at the forefront of democratizing the ecosystem of the written word.
With well- established apps like Medium and substack that cater to the dynamic needs of writers globally, IKO AFRICA is leading the charge here in West Africa to amplify the voices of writers who might have otherwise gone unheard or unpublished in the past. I was opportuned to sit down with Josephine Obasi Inika, a co-founder in charge of operations to discuss Iko’s seemingly sporadic ascension. Tout de suite, Inika, who is best described as a Jacqueline of all trades, answers the first question about the origins of Iko.
“One of us hit a stroke of luck whilst on fiverr and up-work. Beyond platforms like Substack and Medium, there are no home-grown apps or spaces for exclusively African writers to really write and get paid beyond the stated apps and they are the ones that are heavily saturated with non-african voices, for want of a better word. So we don’t have any home growth.
You can’t really point to anything like that,” she says, speaking of a dearth of true African innovation and forward push of the African written word. Inika’s words ring true about the gap in the market and the hegemony of foreign platforms that provide little to no incentive for the African Market whilst being notoriously inaccessible. The numbers speak for themselves — barely a year old, IKO AFRICA has garnered over 5000 sign-ups since its inception with a total of 111,000 views across the continent. Countries such as Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, Uganda, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Cameroon, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and Benin.
“All our numbers are organic too, which is quite strange and encouraging,” Josephine says. Unprecedented and bewildering as it might seem. The rise is no mere product of fortune but the proportionate combination of marketing, supply, demand and a passion for the written word of any kind.
“There are several misconceptions we aim to destroy. One being that Nigerians don’t care about literature or do not read. Iko is a place that caters to readers, too. You can support your favorite writer and read their work judiciously without the inordinate hassle of publishing. The other misconception being that we solely prioritize fiction writers, which is contrary to what we do. Writers of every sector are welcome: tech writers, academia, content writers, copywriters, essayists, etc. We are building a community of writers and readers in a democratic sense.”
Democracy — that’s the modus operandi. The other co-founders, namely Shalom David (Software Engineer) and Emmanuel Eyo (Product Manager and Lawyer), alongside Josephine, have forged a symbiotic working relationship that ranks chiefly the continued success of Iko Africa. Tasks are assigned and shared, streamlined according to their varying abilities. With this team, there’s always room for fallibility and zero room for the blame game. They are the three pivotal components of a well-oiled machine heading toward the summit of the startup mountain.
One may wonder what the primary objective is in a world currently experiencing a new Gutenberg moment with the rapid proliferation of AI-powered systems, rendering the act of human art as an automated product of data reams. Does the center still hold for literary platforms the robustness of human ingenuity? What is the chief value of the written word against the bulldozing structure that is superintelligence?
Josephine Inika isn’t worried about the state of affairs. She’s no naif but her perspective is far from pessimistic.
“I don’t exactly care about the advent of AI in terms of writing. I understand that there are ethical uses but we are always in the business of prioritizing human art untainted by AI. There’s room, excess room in fact, for the voice of humanity.”
The question of one’s station in a decade looms large with startups and even individuals. Everyone asks the question to measure and project the feasibility of what is to come —sometimes, it’s merely magical thinking. But Josephine’s vision is next year. Taking each passing quarter as it comes with her team. There are multi-variables that may impede the ascent of IKO Africa, par for the course in the Nigerian market but make no mistake, they will be around for a while ,lending their inexhaustible light to the unseen.
