Tech nological Leapfrogging and the Future of S torytelling in Africa
Eddy Kariu ki Kamau
Tens of thousands of years ago, we were telling stories. Long before we could even write, early men and women sat around fires and traded wild tales about brave tricksters and young lovers, selfless heroes and shrewd hunters, the origins of the universe, and the nature of gods and spirits. Now thousands of years later, we still consume an astonishing number of stories on pages, stages and on screens. Even after we fall asleep, our minds stay up telling themselves stories. This short paper will investigate the various media and methods used to tell stories and seek to understand how new media and methods of storytelling might be used tell and retell African stories.
Africa is the cradle of mankind and therefore has to be the origin of story. Storytelling in Africa has been manifested in many ways and used to serve many purposes. It is used to interpret the universe, resolve natural and physical phenomena, teach morals, maintain cultural values, and pass on methods of survival and praise of African gods. Storytelling is a revered art form in Africa and it is deeply
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Kariuki, E. 2017. Technological Leapfrogging and the future of storytelling in Africa A student submission to the proceedings of the 3 rd AfriDesignX Conference ‘Design Futures in sub-Saharan Africa: Digital Design and Local Storytelling’, Nairobi, Kenya.
rooted in culture and traditions. Narrative elements in African stories include a short opening, generalized setting, trickster characters and plots that move quickly to a satisfying or compromising end.
Using language which is full of images and symbolism, different storytelling forms have existed over the years. Oral folktales are sung and recited; the stories within them are adapted to various circumstances and are usually told at night, mostly after evening meals. The opening formula, the body expository and the conclusive formula give African tales structure and enable the teller to arrange events in the tales in a way that provides its audience with a captivating and exciting story. African stories also include music which is often performed by individuals, pairs or large groups. African musicians perform songs which contain rituals for summoning spirits and ancestors, social commentary and praises for kings and the elite. Stories in Africa are known largely to be a communal participatory experience.
Today storytelling in African continues to thrive, writers like Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie use books as mediums to tell African stories to the world. Africa also has a vibrant, though not evenly established newspaper and magazine industry. Africa has harnessed most of the modern storytelling technologies including television, radio, the internet and increasingly, even virtual reality. Today, with growing new media sectors across its capital cities, Africa has the potential to become a hub for rich storytelling, like it once was.
A 2017 research initiative conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers about storytelling trends in Africa, looked into eleven entertainment and media industries in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya. It predicts a significant growth in all the media industries which include the internet, television, filmed entertainment, video games, business to business publishing, recorded music, newspaper and magazine publishing, and book publishing among others. The Kenyan entertainment and media industry is expected to be worth 3.3 billion USD in the year 2019, and similar trends can be observed all over Africa with the internet being the largest driver of this growth. The ongoing spread of services to mobile networks, novel devices and emerging markets will change how media and entertainment are served, consumed and monetized in multiple ways.
The evolution of modern technology is rapidly expanding the possibilities of how stories are told. New technologies in the industry are pushing narrative forward, creating unique and innovative ways to tell stories. Stories are becoming more interactive, more immersive and spread across more platforms. Future stories could go anywhere; the future promises entirely new story forms, which will totally change how we experience and interact with our stories. For the longest time, content offered to consumers has been programmed and scheduled by media companies before it is broadcast. Content consumption patterns are however changing with users demanding higher quality content available in a flexible, on demand manner across numerous devices.
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There is also a trend in consumer controlled media where individuals get to control the media they consume. Consumers want more flexibility, freedom and convenience in when and how they consume their preferred content. In recent years, there has been a really strong drive to create stories that give the audience more choice and more control over how the plot plays out. Viewers increasingly want to be part of the storytelling experience, wanting to get deeper into the minds of characters, see stories from these characters’ perspectives and in some cases, develop personal relationships with them. The MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) allows players of these games to become characters in an unfolding story that involves people from across the globe. Characters move thro ugh vast virtual worlds that they share with thousands of other players.
Other games like Pokémon Go allows its players to travel between the real world and the virtual world of Pokémon using mobile devices. The game uses real location information to encourage its users to search out clues in the real world while discovering more in the fantasy Pokémon world. Technologies like VR and AR will in future aim to be more immersive and interactive, looking to make the user experience virtual worlds with all of their senses. Use of haptic devices that send feedback to a viewer will allow them to experience a ‘Blended reality’ in which senses like touch and smell will be included. These devices will help create fully sensory immersive experiences where the user has a sense of inhabiting the story.
The increased number of screens available to an individual creates the demand for content that can be available on multiple types of devices from virtually anywhere in the world. Content creators are required to create content that uses the additional screens as part of the narrative, allowing stories to seamlessly follow the consumer wherever he or she goes regardless of device used. These numerous devices have increased the amount of time people that are being exposed to content, and storytellers should look to create larger volumes of content that makes better use of the omni-platform environment.
Developments in technology will not only advance how we tell and experience our stories, it will also impact how we create them. The visual effects industry has drastically improved realistic rendering of content. They will soon be able to master human emotion and movement to the point of creating fully digital actors that give convincing performances indistinguishable from the real thing. This could mean that future story creators could forego human actors altogether, creating believable fully digital characters in a fully digital realistic-looking virtual world. Crowdfunding platforms that help storytellers to gather funds and resources needed to tell their stories giving creators more freedom to explore interesting and unique stories
Humankind has an insatiable appetite for stories. We live in an age where story arts have become the primary source of inspiration for people. We have evolved to enjoy stories and we are consuming them now in larger and larger quantities and variations. We are surrounded by stories, both fictional and
Kariuki,
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E. 2017. Technological Leapfrogging and the future of storytelling in Africa A student submission to the proceedings of the 3 rd AfriDesignX Conference ‘Design Futures in sub-Saharan Africa: Digital Design and Local Storytelling’, Nairobi, Kenya.
Kariuki, E. 2017. Technological Leapfrogging and the future of storytelling in Africa
A student submission to the proceedings of the 3 rd AfriDesignX Conference ‘Design Futures in sub-Saharan Africa: Digital Design and Local Storytelling’, Nairobi, Kenya.
real; photographs, books, newspapers, magazines, comics, television, radio, paintings, sculptures, gossip, debates, dreams, daydreams, the internet and virtual reality devices are some of the numerous ways modern society consumes its stories.
Digital media and technologies for telling stories are reshaping and offering us new and exciting ways to create and experience our stories. As we move into industry 4.0, storytelling is going to experience a lot of change and development with story structures and characters evolving to suit the various forms of media available; and as consumer needs and wants change to become more personalized and user experience oriented. Modern storytellers are required - especially here in Africa - to create a culture that encourages, appreciates and consumes well-told stories. Looking into the future of African stories, we see vast and great opportunities for growth and development of the storytelling industry as a whole.
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Kariuki, E. 2017. Technological Leapfrogging and the future of storytelling in Africa A student submission to the proceedings of the 3 rd AfriDesignX Conference ‘Design Futures in sub-Saharan Africa: Digital Design and Local Storytelling’, Nairobi, Kenya.
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