Sankofa Library
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Web & Mobile ApplicationSmartQix

Sankofa Library

Preserving African Heritage Through Digital Literature

A cross-platform digital library celebrating African history and literature. featuring 108+ curated books, AI-powered recommendations, and a beautiful kente-inspired reading experience.

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2024
12 months (ongoing)
5 engineers
The Challenge

What We Were Up Against

African literary works are underrepresented in digital platforms. SmartQix set out to create a dedicated platform that not only hosts these works but celebrates the cultural heritage they represent, with a reading experience worthy of the content.

Key Pain Points

  • Need for a culturally authentic design language (kente patterns, era-specific palettes)
  • Cross-platform requirement: web (SEO-critical) and mobile (offline reading)
  • AI-powered discovery to surface relevant works based on reader interests
  • Complex content organization across historical eras, regions, and themes
  • Reader experience needed to rival Kindle/Apple Books quality
  • Support for multiple reading themes (light, dark, sepia) with customizable typography
Our Solution

How We Solved It

We built a Laravel API backend with a Next.js web frontend and React Native (Expo) mobile app, unified by a shared design system rooted in African cultural aesthetics.

What We Built

  • Custom design system with kente-inspired gold palette and era-specific accent colors
  • Laravel API serving both web and mobile clients with consistent data contracts
  • Next.js web app with SSR for SEO and fast page loads on library/book pages
  • Expo/React Native mobile app with offline reading via local SQLite cache
  • AI-powered recommendation engine using reading history and preference signals
  • Rich reader experience with three themes, adjustable font size, and progress tracking
  • Full-text search across 108+ books with relevance scoring
The Results

Measurable Impact

Sankofa Library launched as the premier digital platform for African literary works, with both web and mobile apps receiving praise for their culturally authentic design.

108+
Curated African works
3
Platforms (Web, iOS, Android)
12
Historical eras covered
4.8★
User satisfaction
Project Gallery

A Closer Look

Library Home

Library Home

Era-based navigation with kente-inspired visual identity

Book Detail

Book Detail

Rich metadata, reviews, and chapter navigation

Chapter Reader

Chapter Reader

Distraction-free reading with theme and typography controls

Mobile Experience

Mobile Experience

Native-feel mobile app with offline reading support

Built With

Technology Stack

LaravelBackend
Next.jsWeb
React NativeMobile
ExpoMobile
PostgreSQLDatabase
RedisCache
AI/MLIntelligence
Tailwind CSSStyling
TypeScriptLanguage
DockerDevOps

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