CNN’s Larry Madowo interviews African animators who are utilising animation to showcase African culture and impart life lessons in the most recent episode of African Voices Changemakers.
Madowo meets comedian and animator Emeka “Ajebo” Erem, who claims to concentrate on the benefits of animation as it helps: “Kids to have that healthy self-esteem, be comfortable in your skin and it starts from the subliminal, the little things that you put in their content. So, when they stand, and they stand head-to-head or shoulder-to-shoulder, with anyone from around the world, they will be proud Africans.”
Children can learn Pidgin English and establish connections with the African diaspora through the use of Ajebo’s animated characters, Jeni & Keni and Tegwolo. Although Abejo’s target audience was African, the reach extends well beyond the continent, which has inspired him to take on more. Speaking of his recent endeavours, Ajebo states, clarifies: “With Tegwolo, I knew I was talking to Africans. But with Jeni & Keni, I wanted to talk to the world.”
Continuing, he added that the animations draw African culture to the world and vice versa, saying: “We want to talk about our food, we want to talk about our food places in Africa. We have sat down with the team to come up with tourist attractions all around Africa and we want to infuse them into the episodes. We want people around the world to learn about Africa through the eyes of Jeni & Keni.
“We took the songs, the nursery rhymes, we created original songs as well. Everything that children should know something about. Kindness, caring, hard work, saving, what money is. We took all of the songs and then we gave it an Afro bounce,” he added.
Ajebo aspires to become the leading source of African children’s content soon. He revealed: “In five years, by God’s grace, we will be the number one brand out of Africa telling the African story to the world. On the Jeni & Keni front, we want to be that brand that every child, every home, when you think children entertainment, when you think children education, when you think children edutainment, you think Jeni & Keni.”
Madowo also talks with Oladele Olafuyi, a Nigerian animator who started the storybook company, Kunda Kids with his wife Louisa. To make Kunda Kids easily accessible to kids worldwide and on as many platforms as possible, Olafuyi and his team are always working.
The Nigerian animator has this to say: “At Kunda Kids, we anchor everything we do on three pillars at the moment. First, we started with children’s books because it was the low-hanging fruit. The second is the Kunda Kids App and the third is our animations.”
According to Olafuyi, the Kunda app’s development was required because: “It’s difficult to ship books all over the world. We created the Kunda Kids app for people all over the world to enjoy stories. Our animations are being watched in over 180 countries.”
Olafuyi explains that despite the app’s success, they have: “Chosen to have a YouTube first strategy. And that’s because, in the preschool space, YouTube is the number one platform that everybody goes to consume content. We’re fast becoming the number one preschool show coming out of Africa.”
Olafuyi explores the significant influence of Kunda Kids, saying: “Kunda Kids books series would impact areas like vocabulary, areas like culture areas, like self-help skills and some basic skills such as learning confidence. And also reaching out to our heritage, for instance, ‘Afam and the New Year Festival’.”
While Kunda Kids has made significant progress in a short period, Olafuyi is still on its path to being the best. He outlines their long-term objectives, disclosing: “Our goal over the next 12 to 18 months is to really scale and get everybody all over Africa and all over the world, as many people to know about Kunda Kids. Our goal is to be in every household within 3 to 5 years.”
