Walt Disney Animation Studios recently announced a new partnership with the Pan-African entertainment company Kugali. The two companies will work together to develop an original series called Iwájú.
Kugali uses comic books to show respect for the past and imagine the future of Africa. According to Ziki Nelson, one of Kugali’s three co-founders, the company came to the attention of Disney after being featured on the BBC. “Jennifer Lee, the creative director at Disney Animation, was really inspired by Kugali’s vision to showcase the best African stories.”
Iwájú will be set in Lagos, Nigeria, where Nelson and his fellow co-founder, Tolu Olowofoyeku, grew up. “It represents a personal childhood dream of mine to tell my story and that of my people,” says Nelson, who is writing and directing while their third partner, Ugandan Hamid Ibrahim, is in charge of the visual development. “Though Hamid has never been to Nigeria,” Olowofoyeku says, “there are enough similarities between Nigeria and Uganda that he can design a futuristic vision of Lagos with input from me and Ziki.”
The Kugali team will pair up with Disney animation artists to create a science fiction series that will explore class, innocence and challenging the status quo. In bringing these two unique groups together, says Ibrahim, “The challenge is to create something both breathtaking and unique to stand outside the shadow of all works of art that came before it and leave a lasting mark of its own.”
Iwájú will debut on Disney+ in 2022.
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