1 Introduction
Over the last fifteen years, one can observe a considerable change in the image of Africa ranging from its representation as the lost continent to the continent of the future. This involves a large variety of transmitted narrative elements taken from stories about Africa invented in the long history of narratives about the ‘other’ seen from a European perspective – from the dark and dangerous continent where archaic forms of life appear and reappear to the place of the threat of unknown pandemics. At the same time, it is the continent of nature and therefore of unexplored resources and living space. In both cases, Africa has been and continues to be the space for projections of imagined worlds. Kodwo Eshun describes this entanglement of predetermination by negative scenarios for Africa and an inability to imagine a better future for it in his reflections on Afrofuturism and the zeal of artists to create alternative scenarios (Eshun 2003: 291–2). More recently, Afrofuturism also became trendy in the African context, so that the few African films that could be labelled science fiction, like Les Saignantes (2005) by Jean-Pierre Bekolo (Bekolo 2009) or Pumzi (2010) by Wanuri Kahiu, attracted ongoing attention by critics. However, it is striking that in sub-Saharan Africa (with the exception of South Africa), very few films use genres or narrative patterns that can be linked to the construction of an imaginary of future times (Fendler 2018a, 2018b). The fantasy film genre in which super heroes might appear are also lacking in the African context. A rare exception is the Nigerian film industry, Nollywood. From its beginnings in the 1980s, it has used narrative elements of local storytelling that include mystical and mythical figures as part of films and series set in contemporary Nigeria that draw on local religious practices and mystical beliefs (Haynes 2016; Krings and Okome 2013). Special effects in films would be used to bring to life the interferences of mythical heroes and of witchcraft in daily life.
This is unlike Western film cultures, especially the American one, in which imagining the future has a long tradition in the numerous sub-genres of utopian and apocalyptic narratives that rely on strong heroic characters. Paralleling the growth of Afrofuturistic productions in the arts in Africa, are the
In this article, I turn to a rather recent trend in popular culture of inventing heroes for comics – mainly in urban hubs like Lagos, Cape Town, Nairobi (Omanga 2016), Accra (Pijnaker and Spronk 2017) and, to a lesser extent, Abidjan. It is striking that some super heroes invented in Lagos are linked to Yoruba myths and legends, which are now entering the field of animation (Coetzee 2016). Interweaving the past, present and future into a blend of myths and modern heroes is familiar in the genre of Western super heroes, as for example Thor drawing on Norse mythology, or the gods of Olympus appearing in both DC and Marvel universes. However, in the African context, stories that link a
Having briefly outlined the highly complex field of imaginaries in different formats and diverse settings of production and distribution in varying historical and socio-political settings, the following examples will permit the reader to grasp some initial arguments about how and why aesthetic practices enable imagining and make alternative perspectives and concepts visible or tangible in the context of the complex entanglements of chronotopical settings in a postcolonial dispensation.
2 Animating the Future
Flusser, writing on the gesture of painting, describes gestures as enigmas rather than problems: “One analyses problems to be able to see through them, and so to get them out of the way. … One analyses enigmas to enter into them.” Contrast this with his account of photographing (notably not photography): “A photograph is a kind of ‘fingerprint’ that the subject leaves on a surface, and not a depiction, as in painting.” The subject is the cause of the photograph and the meaning of painting. …
In painting, according to this tradition, we ourselves form an “idea” to fix the phenomenon on the surface. In photography, by contrast, the phenomenon itself generates its own idea for use on the surface.
This definition of drawing circumscribes the essence of the force of imagination bringing something into being. Further on, Lucas states that drawing is a process like thinking, quoting Maxine Sheets-Johnston’s (1999: 485) view that “thinking is itself, by its nature, kinetic.” Therefore, Lucas invites the reader to conceive of drawing as a process of thinking, of generating ideas and concepts. In the following, I would like to present two examples for the imagining power of comics to support my arguments.
Comic Republic is a company founded in 2013 by Jide Martin and based in Lagos, Nigeria. Martin explains that he was very fond of comics as a child but wondered why there were no African heroes. The foundation of his company is motivated by the need for iconic characters with which young readers can identify. In response to this need, he creates heroes who can solve problems, fight gangsters and change the difficult living conditions of the majority of inhabitants in Lagos – just like Superman or Batman could do. The big difference, argues Martin, is that no European iconic hero will come to the rescue of the African population, as in many blockbuster films.2 The young generation needs icons, positive models based on local myths and history, so that readers will adopt the idea of being capable of solving their own problems.3
[Guardian Prime] is the fifth element, one of the five essential elements on Earth (earth, air, water, fire and man). He is the perfect man created how God intended man to be (in his image). He can do everything a normal man can do only magnified to almost God-like levels. He is the guardian born to the human race as customary every 2000 years. He is Nigerian. He is Guardian Prime.5
The characters are portrayed as normal young inhabitants of Lagos – a student, a fashion designer – with whom the reader can easily identify. They turn into heroes when they discover their supernatural powers, so they can fight villains and save citizens as well as protect nature from criminal dealers. Two quotations at the end of the book, Guardian Prime, summarize the main messages directed to the readers. The first is by the main character whose key point is taken from the story: “I believe that humanity can actually be more than it is.” This is followed by a statement by Jide Martin, CEO of Comic Republic, linking the fictitious character to that of the real creator. This merging point of fiction and reality encourages the belief that the statements could become real in the future. The success of the enterprise run by Martin who trains and hires a growing number of young talent, reinforces this positive image. Martin invites his readers to realize that they can improve their lives by believing in the possibility of changing things for the better.
2.1 Hope Rising
I feel like we all have a calling, a reason, something we are all meant to do. Something we are born to do. I think mine is Guardian Prime. Why? Truth is I don’t know. I am also finding it out along the way, but this I do know. … Guardian Prime has brought me faith. I believe that humanity can actually be more than it is. … That we have nothing but ourselves holding us back, and that with faith, nothing is impossible. That you are reading this is proof for me that faith works.
Till next time, always have faith.
JIDE MARTIN, CREATOR Guardian Prime.6
The drawings strengthen this message and allow the reader to enter the enigma of the comic book to look for possible readings of daily life combining history and stories with real life experiences and the young heroes who serve as role models in their way of taking action. Following Ray Lucas, the comic would stir up a process of thinking that is also kinetic, so that the readers might accept the invitation to get involved in an ‘animated vision’ of the future, assuming responsibilities to engage in making Lagos a better place in which to live.
Another example is the heroine Ìrètí Bidemi, an archaeology student at Lagos, or perhaps the incarnation of the mythical Yoruba goddess Ìrètí. When she visits the museum to view her namesake’s statue, it turns into a monster who wants to kill her and send her back to her ancestors. In response to the danger, she unexpectedly acquires supernatural powers that later turn her into an anti-crime fighter.
The story opens with images of the young student sitting on a bus heading to the national museum. It places the story in contemporary Lagos where a student is looking for more information about local history. In this way, the comic links the past to the present.
The transformation of the young woman into a character with supernatural powers activates the present gap in which imagining a possible future is lacking. Unexpectedly, the girl defeats the monster. Her newly gained power enables her to project herself into the future as a fighter for a city without crime.
With this story, the authors pick up some historical elements of oral history and link them to the present. The unexpected combination of orature and institutional memory in the museum with the present that reactivates the
Comics and animation have the advantage of being able to create stories about actual preoccupations without depending on a large team and production chain. Furthermore, this hybrid format of using visual and verbal techniques invites the reader to deconstruct and reconstruct the story (Dacheux 2014: 171). It contributes to a remediation process along the lines of Bolter and Grusin (1999) who distinguished between three major types of redress – reconfiguring media formats to bring up new ones; transposing processes from reality to mediated formats of representation; and the impact of the remediation process on reality by bringing about changes in reality. The two examples presented above contribute to the various processes of remediation as they propose new comic formats as a remediation between the past and future using the enigmatic and kinetic quality of the medium to stir some social changes. They can be placed in the larger context of producing comics and animation, which has developed into a growing trend, so that the animation of the future in Africa is taking place across the continent with artists like Roye Okupe in Lagos with his company Youneek,7 Loyizo Mkize in Cape Town and his super hero character Kwezi.8
References
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For example, Blood Diamond (2006) and even the most recent version of the stories of Tarzan, The legend of Tarzan (2016).
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClwGwx9zqmM [23 February 2020]. https://thecomicrepublic.com/2020/CharacterBible.html [9 May 2021].
https://www.thecomicrepublic.com/site/web/Characterbibleviewer.html?file=The_Comic_Republic_Character_Bible_May6_2020_Web.pdf; p. 55. (25.12.2021).
https://www.thecomicrepublic.com/site/web/Characterbibleviewer.html?file=The_Comic_Republic_Character_Bible_May6_2020_Web.pdf, 41. (25.122021).
https://youneekstudios.com/. The company is based in Lagos and in Laurel, Maryland, USA.
https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/14058/homegrown-comic-superhero-kwezi-is-proudly-south-african [30 March 2020].
http://www.letiarts.com/about-us/ [30 March 2020].