From Cape Town to Cairo, Lagos to Nairobi, animation is fueling the emergence of a creative economy across the African continent and helping to satisfy increasing global demand for new programming and production capacity. Just this month, a series of announcements underscores the rising prominence of African voices in one of the few COVID-resistant segments of the media and entertainment industry.

In a major industry development, the winner of Cartoon Network Africa’s Creative Lab competition, Ridwan Moshood from Nigeria, has opened an animation production company called Pure Garbage, to produce a series of his award-winning original property, Garbage Boy & Trashcan, in anticipation of a global distribution deal. The studio is a partnership between Moshood, US-based producers Baboon Animation, and the African Animation Network (AAN), a for-profit social enterprise that’s instigating and coordinating development of animation capacity across the continent.

“Ridwan is one of the great emerging talents in animation, not just in Africa, but worldwide,” said Mike de Seve, a veteran writer/producer/director of series and features who is founder and president of Baboon Animation. “He has a great instinct for what’s poignant with young people. Garbage Boy is very much in the spirit of classic Cartoon Network style. It’s hilariously stupid. And Ridwan himself is only in his early 20s. His potential is unlimited.”

The African Animation Network is a key part of the emerging strategy, knitting together local and regional efforts in over a dozen countries across the continent including Nigeria, Egypt, Mali, Togo, Uganda and Kenya. “We’ve built a robust for-profit model that doesn’t rely on government, to build partnership with animation associations to impact the creative communities,” said Nick Wilson, founder and head of projects and content for AAN. “This has enabled us to scale at an unprecedented rate, with maximum impact and long term sustainability.”

The studio partnership is just one of several initiatives that AAN is undertaking in collaboration with Baboon Studios in a major effort to tap the energy of Africa’s rapidly-emerging creative economy and consumer market. “All the disruption in the traditional broadcast television model has worked to Africa’s advantage,” said  Wilson. “We have the world’s youngest population, a combined continental population of 1.2 billion on par with India, and a middle class of 300 million and growing.”

Wilson says Africa’s legacy of underdevelopment meant many countries had to leapfrog old technologies and move right into the digital era, with Africans pioneering mobile payment and mobile entertainment platforms ahead of the rest of the world. Though the cost of data is still high by world standards, audiences across the continent are primed to consume short-form content and animation.

Going direct to digital may help African animators overcome an insidious structural barrier built into the global economy. Animator and activist Isabella Rorke of Animation S.A., speaking at the ICON pop culture convention held last year in Johannesburg, observed that African media does not support locally-produced animated content because it is so much cheaper to license foreign content from the US and Japan that has already earned most of its money in its home markets, and is consequently available at extremely low cost in Africa. Even top local creators are at a disadvantage competing with global branded IP with top-flight production values.

Another persistent issue in Africa is the skills gaps, with the young workforce lacking resources and training to compete at a global standard. AAN and Baboon are addressing that in partnership with Boston Media House (part of Boston College South Africa), launching a Baboon Animation Academy and Fukamela (IsiZulu for “incubator”). The initiative is expected to be unveiled once schools in South Africa reopen after COVID-19. Rorke’s organization is also working to improve the rigor of arts curricula in South Africa’s black townships to train a cohort of talent capable of working to global standards.

Though globalization has disadvantaged local IP development, it has benefited the nascent African animation industry in other ways. Animation production services, which tend to migrate to low-cost markets, are now starting to spill over from East Asia and India to Africa. This allows Africans in the industry to gain professional skills in a real-world environment, building capacity for locally-sourced projects and eventually helping Africans climb higher in the creative value chain: the same path that propelled Japan, South Korea and India into global animation powers.

One recent example of studios making this shift from production to creation is Cape Town-based Lucan. The company just announced it is expanding from basic production services into development of original IP, starting with a series called Isaura. The 12-episoide scripted series follows a young girl from a fishing village in Mozambique who attains the ability to breathe underwater and communicate with turtles as she adventures through the east coast of Africa, and features her fight to conserve the ocean, as well as various social and political climate change issues.

FWM: What is it about animation that resonates with your soul? 

As a kid, I watched a lot of animation, it was the best way to dream, live adventures through characters I could relate on. Now working in this industry I feel more the need to entertain the kids through inspirational characters and stories. We need to bring the best values to the kids through our animation series and movies. Animation can bring some educational values that will help them grow such as friendship, tolerance, being nice to one another.

FWM: How does animation unite the world? 

Animation is really important as it is not only about entertaining it is about sending messages to the kids and their parents. Having animation with diverse stories, diverse characters would allow for young children to understand different people, different cultures from around the world.

It would change the opinions of all children, making them aware of different ways that people live and allowing them to escape a narrow-minded approach to beauty and culture. More diversity in programs would help to stop some children from being bullied because of their appearance. It would also allow them to grow up with characters to look up to and connect with. Because of the significant influence media has on young children, it is our responsibility to highlight the diversity so that the new generation can grow up in a more tolerant world. 

FWM: Share a pivotal moment in your life. 

One day as I was losing all my confidence and didn’t know if I should still pursue this dream of running my own business; I had breakfast with a friend (Who is the president of one of the best animation studios).

My friend was straight forward with me, he was not soft and he told me, stop complaining and if you are ready for some sacrifices go for it. You won’t be making money, in the beginning, it is going to be hard, long but if you are ready it is worth it. Then he told me his own story and knowing his success he was a real inspiration to me. Finally, he told me: you know Africa, you are from Morocco, you have a great project from Africa you should focus your own business and your strategy on this continent.

And now he keeps telling me that I have a great vision and strategy. And I always thank him for shaking me, opening my eyes, and moreover being inspirational.

FWM: Tell us about the Mounia Aram Company?

Mounia Aram Company is a production and distribution company that I created in June 2019 to defend values and beliefs that are dear to me: 

The promotion of the African continent.

This involves promoting African talent (producers) on the international scene, particularly in animation through international co-productions and when programs are already produced by international distribution of their content.

The distribution activity also consists of distributing quality programs from other distributors or producers in Africa and Middle East region.

One of the goals is to be able to find talents in Africa and in a near-future work with animation schools in France to have the same kind of schools in Africa. To bring the knowledge and the expertise of the international industry to Africa to be able to self-produce their own content. 

The mission is to ensure that the strength of African storytelling is dully used and market it in the best way. Africa is beautiful, it only needs more presence in the international market. 

The company has several departments organized by activity: distribution, production, and consulting.

FWM: What are some of the African stories that you want to share? 

There is a strong storytelling culture in Africa. Storytelling takes you on a journey that inspires you to learn about yourself and the world around you. It reflects social values in a culture that motivate people in their pursuit of a meaningful life. The oral tradition of storytelling makes it possible for a culture to pass knowledge, history, and experiences from one generation to the next. Many cultures in Africa have rituals of oral storytelling. Traditional storytelling in Africa reveals ideas, themes, beliefs, and facts that are widely spread. It discloses conceptions that are unique to a tribe, village, or region. Moreover, it provides entertainment, satisfies the curiosities of the people, and teaches important lessons about everyday life. 

FWM: Share your goals for 2020.

With this exceptional international pandemic situation, it is not easy for all of us to predict the future of our businesses. However it is important to stay focused, remain positive, and keep setting goals to achieve.

My main goals in 2020 are: 

• start the production of one of the African series that I’m representing.
• Opening my office in Morocco – Casablanca to be in Africa. 
• Start the discussion with the partners in Africa for the animation school projects.

Mounia Aram Company will be the bridge between Africa and the international market. It will be totally taped in Africa by having offices in Morocco, on the African continent. 

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