Voices of the Mother Continent

The glorious renaissance of African animation is on full display in the new Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire anthology.

Dichotomies define Africa and the perception of its people. In the realm of pop culture, the continent is in the middle of an entertainment renaissance. From the emergence of the Afrobeats genre in music to the Nigerian film empire of Nollywood, Africa is demanding a seat at the table of art and entertainment, and with their new anthology series, Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, Disney+ is providing a host of African animators a firstclass invitation to the creativity banquet.

“I think the inspiration [for Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire] was really an awareness of the creative energy that’s been exploding in animation in Africa for the past few years,” says Peter Ramsey, the show’s executive producer, who is best known for directing the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and producing its sequel. “I was just blown away by the enthusiasm, energy and just the talent in that creative community.”

Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire is an action-packed anthology series that exists somewhere between cyberpunk and Afrofuturism. Throughout the series, it isn’t uncommon to see cultural aesthetics from across the continent presented through the lens of science-fiction. In the visually arresting world of Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, elements like tribal facial scarring resemble cyborg circuitry.

A Bridge between the Past and Future

Although the tone and style of animation featured in the 10 short films vary between episodes, Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire boasts a thematic throughline related to the dichotomy of Africans finding a balance between honoring their history and constructing their future. “In most of those shorts, there’s this idea of linking back or somehow dealing with your past,” says Ramsey. “It just seems like something the continent is really trying to grapple with as a whole. To kind of figure out what’s the best way to move forward.”

The progressive themes of Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire frequently stretch toward a distant future, but the creation of the project charts back to an era of our collective past before the 2020 COVID pandemic. Ramsey first became aware of the potential for an African animation anthology by visiting the Cape Town International Animation Festival in 2019. “I had been invited out the year before, but I couldn’t go because of Spider-Verse, and I said, ‘Well, I’ve never been to Africa, and I’d love to come,’” recounts Ramsey. “And I met a lot of the people who would end up being involved in Kizazi Moto back then.”

During his trip, Ramsey fostered relationships with several creatives from the South African animation studio Triggerfish, who initially conceived the idea for Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire. “If I remember right, it was several months after; it might have even been almost a year after that festival, that Triggerfish got in touch with me and said, ‘Hey, we think that anthology idea we were talking about might be coming together with Disney+. Would you like to come on as an executive producer?’” says Ramsey. “And I was like, ‘Yes,’ because that energy that I felt there was really contagious, and I really loved all the filmmakers I met.”

Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire lives up to its namesake, as the series carries almost a Promethean quality for the emerging African animation scene. With the creators behind the series possessing an awareness of pop culture and contemporary perspectives that defies Africa’s perception as “underdeveloped” and “uncivilized,” Ramsey thinks audiences will be impressed by the universal themes found in each short. “You watch those [short] films, and you’re like, ‘Oh, there’s nothing really alien or foreign or behind the times, or anything like that,” says Ramsey. “They’re totally relatable.”

Worlds Within Worlds

One of the shorts that emphasize Kizazi Moto’s cross-cultural appeal is the surfing-centric, coming-of-age tale Surf Sangoma, which, barring the futuristic South African setting, feels reminiscent of classic films like Point Break and Surf’s Up. “South Africa, particularly Durban, has a rich surfing culture,” says Surf Sangoma co-director Catherine Green. “We tried as much as possible to tap into this localism through the aesthetic and soundscape of the animation, as well as drawing on iconic surfers like Rob Machado.”

Although Surf Sangoma has a deeply en- trenched universality that permeates through the short, co-director Nthato Mokgata wanted to highlight the specificities of South Africa’s surf scene. “Our particular focus with our surfing film was township-raised surfers from Umlazi, which inspired our leading characters — people that fuse popular S.A. youth culture like GQOM and street fashion with the surfing,” says Mokgata. “Animation, in general, is quite a challenging field for the fact that we have to create entire worlds and decide on minutia and details — like how wet-looking the water is.”

Despite each short in Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire effortlessly exuding an air of relatability, the series never loses its distinct African flair. For Ramsey, Kizazi Moto’s unique perspective indicates a growing hunger in audiences for international content that challenges long-standing cultural biases. “There are so many different ways of looking at the world in a competition that it feels like people are like, ‘… How do we accept what is history that’s not going to tear us apart, that we can agree on, and deal with, and improve on things, and move forward,’” says Ramsey. “And a lot of African countries are doing it very honestly [by] grappling with Colonialism, grappling with things like the legacy of apartheid in South Africa. I think they’re doing that more honestly than we are in the United States a lot of the time.”

Facing The Truth

The short film Moremi: The Epic Battle by Nigerian director Shofela Coker perfectly exemplifies Kizazi Moto’s honest storytelling by delivering a parable that speaks directly to the African diaspora. “I set out to explore the notion of longing for home — specifically how one might feel when displaced,” says Coker. “With this framework, I hoped to explore the relationship between my generation’s sense of Nigerian identity and the older generation’s — ultimately, how they can be bridged. Furthermore, that reconciliation might always be possible through compassion, understanding and love.”

Interestingly, the creation of Moremi helped Coker forge a deeper connection to his animation team and roots as a Nigerian. “The most fulfilling challenge was striving to provide everyone on our team with the right context, reference, and tools for understanding and translating Nigerian manner, culture, music and art pertinent to our short,” says Coker. “I hoped to convey the power that sounds, rhythms and natural landscapes one might experience in their formative years can act as a therapeutic North Star for the psyche.”

Ramsey posits that projects like Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire and the recent influx of fresh cultural perspectives in the entertainment industry explain the growing popularity of a new subgenre in science-fiction that he helped pioneer with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. “I think that’s the reason we see so much multiverse stuff,” says Ramsey. “This idea that you can have so many points of view on something that seemed solid, like reality.” ◆

Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire is now streaming on Disney+.