For June 2026, we welcome Salim Nuru as our DSF member of the month! ⭐

Salim was a Djangonaut Space participant in the first session. He has been an organizer of the DjangoCon Africa conference. He is currently the chair of the DjangoCon US website team. He is a DSF member since October 2024. He is looking for new opportunities!

You can learn more about Salim by visiting Salim's blog and his GitHub Profile.

Let’s spend some time getting to know Salim better!

Can you tell us a little about yourself (hobbies, education, etc)?

I'm Salim, I’m from Addis, Ababa Ethiopia. I'm a software engineer by day and a security researcher by night. And for fun, I like chess, video games, and books.

I already have an idea, but where does your nickname "theShinigami" come from?

I LOVE anime, and the very first anime I watched was Death Note. There's this character called Ryuk, who is a "shinigami," and when I created my GitHub account, it was a time when I was really into anime (which I still am). That's why it stuck as my GitHub username.

How did you start using Django?

I started using Django during my college years. I was doing freelance work and mostly using .NET and JavaScript, when I got a huge project that needed to be built with Django. I didn't want to pass up the opportunity. At that time, I had heard about Django but never gotten to use it, so I had a week to prepare and spent every minute of it learning Django. I liked how easy it was to learn.

What other frameworks do you know, and is there anything you would like to have in Django if you had magical powers?

From Python based frameworks, I use Flask, FastAPI, etc. And I would like Django to support REST APIs out of the box.

What projects are you working on now?

I have a couple of projects I'm working on currently, and the one I'm proud of, and actively working on, is a platform that scans an Android app and gives security suggestions. It also has an AI that can do a deep scan and suggest a proof of concept if any vulnerabilities are found in the app. This is my first project that involves AI and running my own local LLM for security.

Which Django libraries are your favorite (core or 3rd party)?

There are a lot of great libraries, but the Django Debug Toolbar has a special place in my heart. Also Django Rest Framework (DRF), which I use for most of the projects I work on.

What are the top three things in Django that you like?

Community, security by default, and finally the admin panel.

I know you have a lot of knowledge in cybersecurity. How do you find the security in Django? Have you ever thought about being part of the security team, by any chance?

I'm still learning, and in Django I like how it applies security by default, which is a good thing. For now, I'm replicating the CVEs found in Django, just trying to understand them and find my next CVE in Django 🤞, and hopefully it would be great to work with the Django security team 🙂

You have been an organizer of DjangoCon Africa, thank you for organizing it. Organizers always do a lot of work that people can't see. How did you start? What are the things that surprised you or that you didn't expect as an organizer?

Organizing is a team effort. I like the saying “there is no "I" in DjangoCon US” 🙂

I attended my very first DjangoCon at the very first DjangoCon Africa, as a speaker, and I really enjoyed it. I liked how the community was really welcoming and friendly, and right there and then I decided that this was going to be my community and that I had to do my part.

So I joined the organizing team for the next DjangoCon Africa, and after organizing it, I was really surprised by how many people from the community joined the event, and how far they had come just to attend the conference.

You are now the chair of the DjangoCon US website, that's amazing! What does it mean exactly? How has your experience been so far?

Well, if people want to know anything about the conference, they're going to be checking out the website, and as the chair, I should be able to make that experience great. As for my own experience, I think it's really great and a step up in role. I'm learning a lot, and I'm very happy that I'm able to do it.

You now have some experience in organizing big events. Do you have any recommendations for people who would potentially be interested in contributing to or organizing this type of event?

Don't wait to feel ready, because that feeling rarely comes. Take on a small role first, lean on the people around you, and keep everyone in the loop. So to anyone considering it, I'd say jump in, the experience is well worth it.

You have been part of the Djangonaut Space program as a djangonaut (participant), and you are now involved in the community in many ways. How do you reflect on your evolution since your participation in the program? Any advice for potential new contributors or people who would like to give it a try?

When I joined Djangonaut Space as a participant, I would say that was the highlight of my year, because I always wanted to contribute to open source, especially to Django and Python projects, but I always hesitated to do it. The program really helped me, from picking my first issue to creating the PR (a big shoutout to Fabian, lead maintainer of Django CMS) it was really amazing. And for any new contributors, if you're planning to join Djangonaut Space, it's not just going to help you with your open source contribution, you're going to be joining a community.

Do you remember your first contribution to Django and to open source?

My very first contribution was to a tool for binary instrumentation. I was doing some reverse engineering, but there was a bug that made it difficult, so I had to understand and fix the bug and then create a PR. I remember getting good feedback and having a good interaction via Discord, and the PR was finally merged 🙂. In Django, it was Django CMS, and the issue I worked on was the missing X-Frame option from the Advanced form (#7981). It was a great first issue, and it taught me a lot.

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

I'd just like to thank the Django community for being so welcoming to newcomers, and I'm looking forward to making new contributions (especially in security) 🙂.

Thank you for doing the interview, Salim !