One criticism of Nigeria’s Nollywood movie industry is the lack of variance in story genres.
While Nollywood movies are widely watched across Africa, they’re mainly known for live action urban rom-coms and modern-day dramas than anything else. Two genre gaps are animations and movies rooted in African mythology. Roye Okupe, founder of YouNeek Studios, a comics publisher, is hoping to fill both in one swoop.
After years of publishing Malika: Warrior Queen as a graphic novel with its central character inspired by Queen Amina, a 16th century queen who ruled in parts of Nigeria’s northwest, Okupe has stepped things up with an animated 15-minute short film which he expects to be the precursor to a full length feature. The decision to base the story on a character steeped in legend was deliberate for Okupe.
“I really wanted to do something deeply rooted in African history, culture and mythology,” he says. “These are things they don’t teach us in schools in Nigeria because we learn more about foreign history than our own. I didn’t know about Queen Amina growing up.”
Okupe’s effort comes amid a blossoming of the comic scene in Nigeria. Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital, has hosted an annual Comic Con since 2012 with several companies and creators showcasing characters and stories in front of an audience that now numbers in thousands.
Source: https://qz.com/africa/1673168/nollywood-studio-debuts-animation-malika-warrior-queen/