- Google doodles features arts to celebrate various world events and personalities on Google’s homepage
- Joe Impressions is a popular Kenyan graphic designer who has been ‘doodling’ since he was a kid
- Joe Impressions was the designer of Google doodle of Prof. Okoth Okombo from Nairobi University who was one of the founders of sign language in Africa
Joe Impressions is the Kenyan graphic designer who created the Google doodle that appeared on 8 November 2021. It commemorated the life of Prof. Okoth Okombo (Nairobi University), who was “one of the founders of the scientific study of sign language in Africa and a distinguished scholar in Nilotic language study”.
Joe has been doodling since he was a child, when he discovered his love of art. He doodled Bible stories and used the back pages of his school-books to doodle for fun. He got his first laptop at university, and this led to him discovering software programmes that he could use to create art.
He taught himself how to use Adobe Illustrator using online tutorials and his skills improved. One thing led to another, and he became a freelancer, getting jobs through online freelance platforms, and this led to the offer from Google to create the Okombo doodle. Three rough sketches were presented to Google, and one was selected for finalisation.
Uptick in African Google doodles
Joe’s Prof. Okombo doddle is not the first African doodle used by Google. In fact, we are seeing an uptick in Africans being featured, as the big techs start driving internet connectivity into Africa hard, in order to grow their platforms, as they have reached saturation point in many of the developed countries around the world. Some of the other famous names that have had a Google doodle created for them, sometimes by an African artist, include:
Charlotte Maxeke – 7 April 2022. Charlotte Maxeke was a South African scholar, evangelist and
activist for women’s rights and education. The Google doodle was done by Pola Maneli, from South Africa.
Nomhle Nkonyeni – 9 April 2022. Nomhle Nkonyeni was a South African actress who defied and
overcame apartheid rules, taking to the stage as “the first Black actress to perform at … a major
performing arts center in Cape Town”.
Emmanuel Gladstone Olawale (Ola) Rotimi – 13 April 2022. Ola Rotimi was a Nigerian “playwright, director, actor, choreographer and designer, who used his art to reflect on Nigeria’s rich culture, diversity and local traditions”.
Muhammad a-Fayturi – 24 November 2021. Muhammad a-Fayturi was a Sudanese-Libyan poet,
playwright and diplomat, who fused into his work “mystic philosophy, African culture, and a call for
a future free from oppression”. The Google doodle was done by Nora Zeid from Dubai.
Google uses doodles that are relevant to or of particular interest to certain countries and regions only in those countries or regions, so all people around the world or even all those in one region don’t see the same doodle. For example, the Ola Rotimi doodle was seen in Nigeria, but not elsewhere in the world.
There are also an increasing number of Google doodles that commemorate the national day or the independence day of an African country, including:
Senegal Independence Day – 4 April 2022
Tunisia National Day – 20 March 2022
Ghana Independence Day – 6 March 2022
Kenya Independence Day – 12 December 2022
Tanzania Independence Day – 9 December 2021
Morocco Independence Day – 18 November 2021
