Afro Story: Africana at the push of a button 20 Feb 2021 Polar pioneer: Matthew A Henson’s book, A Negro Explorer at the North Pole, is available on the Afro Story app. Photo: Bettmann The Afro Story App, which brings together 50 texts — many of them classic Africana — to your phone, aims to have a profound influence on the way literature is consumed. Born from conversations between public-health specialist John Ashmore and Hombakazi Nqandeka, the app curates texts that are in the public domain because of lapsed copyright, making them available for easy consumption through an Android smartphone. The app is downloadable at a cost of R43 on Google Play. Users can pay using a credit or debit card, or even with airtime.