(South) Africa’s online animation revolution: the case of Jonas Lekganyane’s The adventures of Noko Mashaba

ABSTRACT

The staging of the first Comic Con Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 2018, which was a sold out event, confirmed the progressive maturation of the comics industry in South Africa and Africa generally. Despite this welcomed advancement, the traditional printed comic book modality remains exclusionary for a majority of black South African comic artists interested in generating and publishing their own material. This paper is interested in how comic animations disseminated via the Internet have emerged as an alternative and redemptive practice for black South African comic artists seeking to insert their content into the creative industries mainstream. Through a reading of Jonas Lekganyane’s The adventures of Noko Mashaba animated series, I show how black South African comic artists have, through online and virtual platforms, circumvented the difficult to access comics publishing terrain in South Africa – and the rest of Africa generally – to contribute much needed creative plurality related to imaging of contemporary Africanity. The online animations have also cultivated a new cyber-space-based fan culture within South Africa’s comics landscape.

KEYWORDS:

• Animation
• internet
• South Africa
• Jonas Lekganyane
• black

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In 2019, the second instalment of Comic Con Africa was held at an event larger venue, with participation numbers exceeding the previous year. I was fortunate enough to attend the showcase and was thoroughly impressed by how the event was an advertisement of the scale and professionalisation of the comics industry in South Africa.

2. See Sidogi (2014) for a more thorough explication of Mdu Ntuli’s pioneering practice.

3. Besides the animated videos by South African artists, which is the focus of this paper, Abejo Toons in Nigeria has also become hugely successful, with some of the episodes amassing over 5 million views on YouTube.

4. At the time of writing this article, the Rams Comics YouTube channel had 215,000 subscribers. The channel had 54 videos uploaded and 24 of these clips had received at least one million views. Lekganyane has also enjoyed nation-wide media exposure, from print and broadcast media outlets.

5. Being born in 1993 during the period of political transition in South Africa places Lekganyane as part of the ‘born-free’ generation. South Africa’s ‘born-frees’ are the equivalent of Generation Z, born during the 1990 s and 2000 s, who are characterised as being the quintessential ‘digital natives’ because of their proficiency in using technology and the Internet (Selwyn 2009).

6. For example, the ‘Noko vs Izikhothane Part 1’ episode first published in August 2014 has amassed over 2.4 millions views on YouTube.

7. In very reductive terms, YouTube has a system wherein it compensates content producers for every 1,000 monetised views an uploaded video generates. These monetised views are of course linked to advertising. Not all material uploaded and viewed on YouTube is monetised. Furthermore, the valuation of actual views fluctuates based on region, with adverts viewed in the US, certain parts of Europe and Australia earning the highest income kick-backs for the up-loaders of the videos. In short, YouTube incentivises content producers of videos that generate high volume views based on ad revenue it has charged by a complex ‘cost per 1,000 views’ formula.

8. I must issue a disclaimer here that, within the Triggerfish productions, Africans are not illustrated in the terms I have described here. Nevertheless, one could certainly read the plethora of animated films, especially from Hollywood, about the African landscape void of the human element as being unwittingly and indirectly disingenuous to the people who have to live alongside those natural systems.

9. Kendall’s investigation was part of South Africa’s contribution, through the then National Institute of Personal Research, to the International Biological Programme world-wide research project which was ‘concerned with the biological bases of productivity and human welfare’ (Kendall 1980, 3). Kendall studied the Pedi adult population, whilst another scholar studied the VhaVenda people. To my knowledge, an equivalent study looking at the intelligence variances between rural and urban based white people in South Africa was not conducted.

10. Of interest regarding the participants is that 50% of them, on both sides of the urban-rural divide, had no formal schooling, and those that possessed education, only progressed until standard eight, the equivalent of grade ten in today’s National Qualifications Framework.

11. See Plomin (2018) for a fascinating exploration of how DNA and not environmental markers has the single biggest impact on the psychological abilities of individuals.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pfunzo Sidogi

Pfunzo Sidogi is a lecturer in the Department of Fine and Studio Arts, Faculty of Arts and Design at the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria, South Africa.