Jamojis – Jamaican Emojis
Apple is known to take the world by storm with their constant updates and models to their phones. However, now the world is being taken over by a Jamaican businessman named Sean Anderson. Along with the incorporation, celebrities have been selling their versions of Emojis through the App Store including big name like Kim Kardashian, Amber Rose, Blac Chyna and Wiz Khalifa.
The Florida-based entrepreneur has launched a Jamaican inspired emoji app for smart phones which he says is rooted in common Jamaican patois including popular sayings and terms. Referred to as ‘Jamojis’, he says they will include popular Jamaican sayings like ‘Wha Gwahn’ and ‘One Love’ and also feature some of the more authentic sayings like ‘Pop Style’, ‘Pull up’ and ‘More Fire’.
Anderson grew up in Morant Bay, St Thomas, and decided to create the app after noticing that ‘mainstream’ technology didn’t quite capture the essence of the Jamaican culture in the same way that it does American culture.
“Caribbean and Jamaican culture has touched many places and localities outside of their place of origin and permeated pop culture. That is great from an influence and acceptance perspective. But I believe more should be done to embrace the uniqueness of these cultures and that is incumbent upon all who have a genuine and personal interest in the Caribbean flair to promote and protect it.”
Anderson went to school at Knox College in Clarendon and went on to attend UTech in Kingston. In the mid-nineties, he moved to the USA, spending most of that time living in New York, before moving to Florida three years ago and is the author of a technology career guide.
In the tech savvy world, we live in today, and with the growing popularity of emojis, Anderson believes his app has hit the market at the right time and now he and other Caribbean’s and Caribbean fans will be able to enjoy the keyboard feature in a new way.
Anderson and his team are working on a number of celebrity partnerships, which will help broaden the audience for the apps and with the 31st Olympics in Rio already underway, he has something special in the works.
“The Android version has some new Olympic- inspired emojis just in time for Rio 2016 and there are also music inspired ones.” But no need to worry if you do not have an Android, Anderson says he is “very excited because we are working to bring the iPhone version up to par. The new version for iPhone will be here in a few weeks.”
