Does Nigeria have an animation industry?
You probably already have an answer in your head, if that answer is yes, your next question may be why it’s so unpopular?
First Nollywood pays absolutely zero attention to this sector, it’s almost impossible to stumble upon it anywhere.
I trace everything down to poor governance. Nigeria doesn’t have infrastructure that encourages or promotes creativity, we need more things like this. Most shows in Nigeria are still funded directly from people’s pockets, another thing is a lot of animators still lack the core technical skills that help produce quality animations.
Now I’m not going to pretend that there aren’t people trying to make things better, but to be honest, it’s not just the same trying anything in Nigeria, the environment is just somehow naturally against you, which makes the things that are meant to be straightforward, difficult.
The current use for animations in Nigeria usually doesn’t go beyond adverts but there are rare cases like Malika’s pilot film made by Youneek Studios that rise a bit above the status-quo and also Dawn of thunder a short film by Komotion Studios then there’s Elliot the littlest reindeer which was termed as Nollywood meets Hollywood but not even one Nigerian was officially credited in the movie.
Asides from that there’s those who just do it for the sake of doing it, as in “Let me say I’ve made something,” animators like that try to take advantage of the manage it like that mentality we have, that’s why they feel like they can just make anything and people will accept it because even though it’s nonsense, they tried their best, there’s a certain level of quality the industry has just simply refused to rise above, Nigerians are either going to manage substandard quality or look somewhere else and the latter is currently happening and has been happening for some time now, because there’s really no alternative yet, we enjoy shows like Family Guy, Bojack horseman, The Simpsons, One Punch Man, etc., but don’t have ours, we watch House of Ajebo, yeah it’s funny I’ll admit but we need way more options.
Growing up hungry
What Nigerian cartoons did you enjoy growing up? I won’t even let you think cause the answer is none and you know what?, that wouldn’t be too bad if not till date you can’t still turn on your Tv and decide that you want to watch a Nigerian cartoon or animated show, if you ask one of your friends their favorite cartoons growing up, it’ll probably be Ben 10 or not something far from it, why can’t it be something Nigerian?, I’m not saying that a Nigerian show has to be your favorite but where are the options? this isn’t only a Nigerian thing by the way, it’s an African thing as well because I can’t think of one African made cartoon or animated show, the truth is that it’s all in our hands and until we realize that we’ll just be consumers and never producers.
We have to own what our people consume, not in a dictatorship kind of way, but so kids can point to the Tv and see people that look like them and so they can relate much better with characters, tho it currently happens cause diversity is getting a bit better, but in a more personalized way, cause we have our own things, we have our humor and we have our own culture and also we deserve to see ourselves from new and different perspectives, which brings me to the next section.
Originality Dilemma
Somehow we just naturally tend to avoid things made in Nigeria or we just assume that they’re substandard in some way, most of the animations I’ve seen so far in Nigeria try desperately to add some form of western element to their animations, either it’s accents, culture or just something an average Nigerian would never do and it’s never vice-versa, we need to learn to love ourselves and the things we do and make, there’s so much beauty in originality, it’s powerful and it helps strengthen our ownership, we don’t need to be anyone but ourselves, we have to tell our stories right, I used to say that we need to sell originality back to the people, caused we’ve been robbed of it for no reason, we have the responsibility to restore that, not because everyone is suddenly realizing that being African is cool again but because there’s no better time than right now.
Good news
More people in the industry are starting to realize that there’s an opportunity for better service and serious innovation, the industry is rising, sooner than later, it’s going to become more important and it’s going to mean a lot more to people, we are going to move from only skits, adverts and short films to original and creative series and even films, so people can say that they really enjoyed what they just watched, not because they’re trying to show support cause a Nigerian made it but because it’s undeniably good.
There’s also something funny I noticed, if you check the bios of nearly all animation studios in Nigeria, it’s always something like “Best Studio in Nigeria” or “Africa’s largest animation studio,” nearly all. There’s nothing wrong with that but if you really are, we should know, there should be no need to remind anybody, it’s the equivalent of upcoming artists saying “it’s your boy [insert artist name],” when no one knows you and you are in fact not our boy, it’s like sometimes they are more concerned with titles than results but we’ll get there.
I can’t end without answering the question myself, does the Nigerian animation industry exist? yes of course, but all I’ve mentioned above might explain why you haven’t seen much or anything at all from it or why it seems non-existent to many people. Things should get better with time, I’m hoping at least.
