CNN’s African Voices Changemakers delves into African animation

CNN’s African Voices Changemakers delves into African animation

African Voices Changemakers airs on CNN International Saturday 19th October 2024 at 0730 WAT 

In the latest episode of African Voices Changemakers, CNN’s Larry Madowo meets African animators who are using animation to teach life lessons and celebrate African culture. 

Madowo meets Emeka “Ajebo” Erem, comedian and animator, who says he focuses on how animation 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.”

Ajebo’s animated characters, Tegwolo and Jeni & Keni, help teach children Pidgin English and connect with African diaspora. He explains, “With Tegwolo, I knew I was talking to Africans. But with Jeni & Keni, I wanted to talk to the world.” Ajebo’s animations export African culture, “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.”

While Abejo’s focus was an African audience, the reach is far beyond the continent which has spurred him to do more. Talking about his new ventures, Ajebo says, “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.”

Ajebo hopes that in the near future the brand would be the go-to for children’s African content, “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 speaks with Nigerian animator, Oladele Olafuyi, who, alongside his wife Louisa, founded Kunda Kids, a storybook company. Olafuyi and his team are constantly working to ensure that Kunda Kids is easily accessible to children all over the world and on as many platforms as possible. He explains, “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.”

Olafuyi explains that the development of the Kunda app was necessary as, “It's difficult to ship books all over the world.” He continues, “We created the Kunda Kids app for people all over the world to enjoy stories. Our animations are being watched in over 180 countries.”

Despite the success of the app, Olafuyi explains they have, “Chosen to have a YouTube first strategy. And that's because in the preschool space, YouTube is like the number one platform that everybody goes to consume content. We're fast becoming the number one preschool show coming out of Africa.”

Olafuyi delves into the important impact of Kunda Kids, “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’.” 

He continues, “Children all over the world also deserve to learn about Africa because there's such a big gap in curriculum even outside of Africa, even within Africa. It's not something that is really well taught. And part of our goals at Kunda Kids is to make sure children all over the world learn about Africa. That's why our motto is about raising global citizens because you can't call yourself a global citizen if you know nothing about Africa.”

Although Kunda Kids has achieved a lot in a short time, for Olafuyi, the journey to their peak continues. He describes their future goals, “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.”

African Voices Changemakers airs on CNN International at the following times:

Saturday 19th October 2024 at 0730 WAT and 1100 WAT

Sunday 20th October 2024 at 0330 WAT and 1800 WAT

Monday 21st October 2024 at 0300 WAT

Saturday 26th October 2024 at 0730 WAT and 1100 WAT

Sunday 27th October 2024 at 0230 WAT and 1700 WAT

Monday 28th October at 0200 WAT

https://edition.cnn.com/specials/africa/african-voices-changemakers

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