The millennial daring to change animation industry

Most Kenyans are familiar with cartoons because that is what most of them consumed on TV while growing up. Animation titles like Tom & Jerry and SpongeBob are popular and consumed almost daily. These cartoon shows are mostly created in the West, meaning that the African market consumes more animation content than it creates.

But Joy Mwangi,29, is determined to change this. She is among the few female entrepreneurs who have dared to venture into the male-dominated animation industry.

Joy founded Ada Animation in 2020, a Pan-African Animation studio that seeks to build a thriving industry in Africa that will in turn create employment for the youth and catalyse wealth-creation.

“Ada Animation was born out of a desire to build capacity in the animation industry, tell animated African stories and catalyse growth in the animation industry,” she says.

The multi- award-winning Kenyan entrepreneur says that her studio is the first in Kenya and one of the few in Africa that has successfully establish an all-animation capacity building programme.

Animation is the process of creating a sequence of images that appear to move and come to life, usually through the use of digital or hand-drawn techniques. In animation, a series of still images, or frames, are presented in rapid succession to create the illusion of movement.

“Animation can be used to tell stories, convey information, or create visual effects in film, television, video games, advertising, and other forms of media. It can take many different forms, including 2D hand-drawn animation, 3D computer animation, and stop-motion animation,” she says.

Ada Animation, headquartered in Kenya with offsite stations in Nigeria and South Africa, is an animation tech-driven business that enables content creation to drive commercialisation, as well as active introductory training through its capacity building programmes that introduce animation, its concepts, its career opportunities and technical training to interested members, especially early-career developers.

The studio broke into the limelight with its flagship training boot camp programme that, since its launch in 2020, has trained over 150 animators in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Zambia and Tanzania.

“My solution targets not just the served, but also the underserved, marginalised communities through training collaborations with policy-making stakeholders including government bodies and nonprofit organisations like FinnChurch Aid, Kenya,” she says.

Joy believes that somehow, animation chose her. Born in a Christian family of three siblings, Joy’s upbringing was of full love and sacrifice from her parents who invested generously in her education. They took her to one of Nairobi’s leading private schools – St. Nicholas Primary.

“My interest in music was particularly puzzling to my parents. When my peers were outside playing, I often remained indoors, listening to music from different stations. After my high school education, my career path seemed so clear to me. I wanted to be a deejay,” she reminisces.

But her parents, who were staunch Christians, were skeptical.

Joy remained steadfast, and to settle the conflict, her parents urged her to get a degree to secure her future just in case deejaying didn’t work out.

“I had not thought of a career beyond DJing. My parents persuaded me to take a course in communication since I was good at social interactions. In 2015, I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in communication and public relations, and in 2018, I boosted my degree with a Professional Certificate in Marketing from London’s Chartered Institute of Marketing,” she says.

Joy took on an internship at Standard Media Group as an assistant TV Producer Intern, and later got a job as a TV Producer where she worked within Media Communication for four years, serving as a Supervising Team Producer in two of those years at the age of 23 .

“My career blossomed when I got into the marketing space. I have since worked for multinational companies like Sage, Fintech TV - New York, Dapptricity - Hong Kong, and Adanian Labs.”

In 2020, having gained substantial experience in Story writing, Storytelling, Content Production, Media Relations, and Marketing Communications, her desire to tell African stories through animation was still very present and persistent.

“My imagination was unmatched, and when I joined KTN Home, my first show was Club Kiboko. I wanted to write stories for the audience and tell them using animation. I hoped, and still do, that African children can watch content they can relate to and learn from, and which promotes African community values, not just those that entertain.”

What Joy did not know was that the first challenge she would encounter was lack of skilled capacity to create these animations. “The industry is lacking many factors including skill acquisition, market exposure, opportunities to collaborate, content distribution difficulties, and poor access to affordable training and funding. But, Africa is catching up fast. The zeal being showed by artists will propel us to even greater success,” she says.

Joy reveals that Disney is eyeing Africa.

“In 2021, Disney tapped top toon talents from across Africa for Kizazi Moto, an original anthology of animated films that was set to premiere on the Mouse House’s platform in late 2022,” she says, adding that its power production team includes Oscar-winning director Peter Ramsey (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) who will serve as executive producer, with Tendayi Nyeke and Anthony Silverston working as supervising producers.

Cape Town-based animation house Triggerfish, which received the prestigious MIFA Animation Industry Award this year, will be the lead studio for the anthology, working in collaboration with animation studios across the continent and globally.

The African animation industry has a unique perspective to offer, drawing on the rich cultural heritage of the continent, and telling stories that reflect the diverse experiences of African people.

“African animation studios are exploring a range of styles and techniques, from traditional hand-drawn animation to cutting-edge 3D animation and virtual reality experiences. Despite facing challenges, the industry continues to develop with the potential to not only create jobs and boost local economies but also to help shape global culture and entertainment,” she concludes.

Joy has been nominated for a number of local and international awards including Africa’s Top 40 under 40 Founder of the Year, Inspiring Leader of the Year, and Africa’s Rising Star Award by AfricaTech Summit and Startup of the Year by Kenya Innovation Week (KIW).

She has graced multiple international platforms such as CapeTown Animation Festival, Worldwide Women in Technology Innovation Summit (Johannesburg), The EXPO Summit 2020 (Dubai), and Migration Summit hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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