News — nigerian

It was back in 2017 when Tolu Olowofoyeku, Hamid Ibrahim, and Fikayo Adeola, friends from Nigeria and Uganda, established Kugali as pan-African creative company. The comic book collection they came up with was born out of a desire to tell modern African stories—now it’s set to reach a much wider global audience than they could have hoped with a comic book.

Now Disney has announced Kugali’s science fiction series Iwájú will debut globally in 2022 on Disney+ fast-growing streaming service.

Disney Animation studios described the move as the

Iwájú, a name that loosely translates to “the future” in Yoruba, a language spoken in West Africa, is set in Lagos and will explore a number of thematic concerns from class and innocence to challenging the status quo. The creators see it as an opportunity for Disney to tell a modern and authentic African story to the world using the entertainment behemoth’s animation and distribution prowess.

“Their talents blew us away. I’m proud to announce the first of its kind collaboration to bring original long for series to Disney+,” Disney Animation studios’ chief creative officer, Jennifer Lee, said of Kugali while speaking at Disney’s investor day this week.

Disney used the investor day to unveil several major announcements extensions to its storied franchises including Star Wars and for its Marvel characters. The world’s largest entertainment company has been under pressure to expand and boost its range of content as it doubles down with its Disney + platform to compete in the so-called streaming wars with Netflix and more recently HBO in the US and globally.

Disney+ has grown rapidly since debuting in November 2019 and now has 86 million subscribers globally, compared with Netflix’s  near 200 million subscribers as of the third quarter, built over 13 years.  Disney projects it will have 230 million to 260 million subscribers by the end of its fiscal year 2024 which is a huge jump from its initial projections in 2019 of 60 million to 90 million subscribers.

While Disney has had huge success with Africa-influenced tentpoles including Marvel’s Black Panther and Lion King it has no established track record of working with African creatives but it has started to move in that direction. In September, Disney Studios collaborated with Nigeria’s cinema chain FilmOne Entertainment to distribute Disney-owned films in English-speaking West Africa.

Netflix, which is much further along in working with African creatives in Nigeria’s Nollywood and South Africa’s TV and film industry, has become increasingly influential on the continent as it rolls out original shows produced by local talent, producers and executives including Queen Sono and Blood and Water and movies including Lionheart.

Africa’s animation film sector is growing rapidly with young talented animators and local collaborators create new, mostly short, features. This month saw the unveiling of Nigeria’s first animated full-lenght feature film titled Lady Buckit and the Motley Mopsters.

Last year, Netflix revealed it had partnered with Cape Town-based animation studios Triggerfish for a new series called Mama K’s Team 4, the story of an all girl-team of African spies, who also happen to be four normal Zambian teens by day.

Nigerian author, Irenosen Okojie, has won the AKO Caine prize for African writing.

The Caine Prize is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, but published in the English language.

Ms Okojie was announced the winner of £10,000 (approximately N4.8 million) award prize on Monday afternoon at a virtual unveiling on YouTube, for her short story "Grace Jones."

Earlier in May, a five-writer shortlist was released for the 20th edition that featured stories that "speak eloquently to the human condition through a diverse array of themes and genres". It was virtually graded by the judging panel.

The shortlisted authors for this year's prize are from Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania. Three out of the five writers are Nigerians. One has dual citizenship (Namibia, Rwanda).

Ms Okojie was among the three shortlisted Nigerian writers. Others are Chikodili Emelumadu for his short story, 'What to do when your child brings home a Mami Wata' and Jowhor Ile for 'Fisherman's Stew.'

Organisers of AKO Caine Prize postponed this year's award ceremony due to the coronavirus pandemic, citing safety of authors, staff, guests and partners as their topmost priority.

But on Monday afternoon during the virtual award ceremony, Ms Okojie's "Grace Jones" was pronounced the winning short story of the year for its "radicality of logic, time and place" and praised as "risky, dazzling, imaginative and bold."

"Grace Jones" was published last year in Ms Okojie's book, "Nudibranch," her second short story collection and her third book, following her debut novel "Butterfly Fish" and her first collection "Speak Gigantular."

It tells the story of a Grace Jones impersonator and deals with questions of trauma and identity as well as pleasure and escape.

The story chronicles the psychological and behavioural changes of the main character, Sidra, a young woman who becomes a celebrity impersonator who is wracked with guilt after her whole family dies in a fire that destroys their London flat.

The chair of the judging panel and director of The Africa Centre, Kenneth Tharp, described the journey of Ms Okojie's main protagonist Sidra, a young woman who has moved to London from Martinique as an "exquisite and seamless movement between the exploration of the universal experiences of unspeakable suffering, pleasure and escape, and the particular experience of being black and African in a global city such as London."

"It is intense and full of stunning prose; it's also a story that reflects African consciousness in the way it so seamlessly shifts dimensions, and it's a story that demonstrates extraordinary imagination. Most of all, it is world-class fiction from an African writer," Mr Tharp said.

As the Black Lives Matter protests continue, he added that the story "offers a salient exploration of what it can mean to embody and perform blackness in the world."

Elated

Reacting to why she chose the story's subject matter, the Nigerian writer said it was important for her to write experimental fiction that centres on a black woman.

"I write weird experimental fiction. And I think it's really important to centre experimental fiction by a black woman like myself, because for a long time, I felt like I was operating on the fringes. People were often quite surprised by my writing, just in terms of subject matter and style," she said.

"I'm really passionate about centring the stories of black women and people of colour. It's important to show their lived experiences," she said. "But I like to do it couched within these darkly fantastical worlds, pushing the boundaries of form, ideas and language, so the reader has a different experience."

Ms Okojie also said she had always found the actual Grace Jones "hugely inspiring", and wanted to explore "this idea of trying to subvert the pain of the past by hiding under a different character".

The Nigerian author said the award has given her confidence as a black and female experimental writer.

She is currently writing a second novel, but she said she finds the process of short story writing "feverish", and filled with a "sense of urgency."

Other notable Nigerian writers who have previously won the AKO Caine prize for African writing include Lesley Arimah (2019) for "Skinned"; Tope Folarin (2013) for "Miracle" ; Rotimi Babatunde (2012) for "Bombay's Republic"; Segun Afolabi (2003)for "Monday Morning" and Helon Habila (2001) for "Love poems".