We launched AfricArXiv in June 2018 envisioning a pan-African preprint repository with several goals in mind:

1. Increased visibility for African research output - free of charge for the researchers
2. Encouraging submission in traditional African languages – at the time unique and piloting asa concept, as far as we are aware
3. Bridging between anglophone, francophone and other language gaps on the continent
4. Encourage international / cross-continental collaborations 
5. Fostering Open Science principles and practices

Excerpt from our first blogpost:

The Center for Open Science and AfricArXiv Launch Branded Preprint Service

[…] The idea was raised during the first African Open Science Hardware Summit (AfricaOSH) in Kumasi, Ghana, when a large group of African and other international scientists discussed the aspects of Open Science Hardware in the African context. The necessity for a general repository on Open Science for Africans came up, was tweeted about and responed to by COS’s Executive Director Brian Nosek with the suggestion for a preprint repository for Africa as one part of such platform: https://twitter.com/AwareAwuah/status/985171790438813697 […]

The launch was covered a.o. in English by Nature Index, Quartz Africa, AuthorAID, and in French by Afro Tribune and Courrier International.