From the black and white era, to beautiful colors and wonderful sounds on the big screen and now the watch on the go streaming era, Television has been a format that’s here to stay and has amassed a variety of audio visually influenced people. With streaming services all over the world trying to pick the brains of creatives worldwide, it’s no surprise albeit somewhat late that Nigeria has started to become a major source for them to tap from.

Although TVs have been around for a long time now, in Nigeria they became common around the mid 90’s and as of the 2000’s nearly every household had some sort of audio visual form of entertainment but it mostly consisted of village love sagas, Nollywood epics and telenovellas. But for the younger millennials and the Gen- Z’s like myself, cartoons and animations were our bread and butter. From outlandish and mischievous adventures in Tom and Jerry, to fairy tales brought to us by Disney princesses, Barbie and the character dynamics in superhero cartoons had us all hooked. It sparked a flame of imagination in each child and it wasn’t long before every kid had a cartoon that really got them going or became their safe space. With the quick embrace of animations and cartoons by Nigerian kids, it also brought on critics, especially Mothers and sometimes Sunday school teachers who saw it as demonic or claimed they saw revelations of these cartoons in hell especially the likes of Fan favorites like Ben 10 and samurai Jack (weird but funny claims). While others just saw it as sometimes violent as it led to kids engaging in harmful or dangerous activities.

But to us, they weren’t harmful, we were not cynical or iffy about them. They were windows of adventure. Food to our imagination. Educating us on morals, friendship bonds that could stand the even the strongest waves, the fights between embodiment of good and evil and overall they were just really entertaining to watch and it was brought us intense joy trying to imitate.

The world building, lovable and almost relatable characters of cartoons like Avatar:The last Airbender with their Asian styled themes were unparalleled, an unarguable classic with great replay value(I mean I’ve re-watched the series more times that I can count at this point.) And then for the more matured minds and young adults there was the lore of animes like Naruto, One piece, Dragon balls and the likes that confronted more adult themed topics with elements of childish imaginations and immature protagonists whose growth and development we all witnessed. The anime craze and its influence became global around the world and here in Nigeria, setting the stage for comic cons, anime expos, conventions and communities, an avenue for people of like minds to interact and have fun while promoting anime culture.

Albeit animations and cartoons were already a force to be reckoned with in the entertainment industry and a main stay, in Nigeria that was not the case. There was high consumption of cartoons being watched by Nigerians and its influence was spreading more and more but that was not to be said of in the aspect of production and animation of our own cartoons that told our own stories, animated by our own studios. Animation for us and the world by us.

Around the early 2010s, a variety of animated skits and comedy channels began to pop up, the most famous of the bunch being “House of Ajebo” with its renown skit “Aboki” about a Maishai((Hausa term for person that sells bread, egg or noodles by the roadside- you should try it, it’s really good). It brought the creator and voice actor Emeka Erem stardom in the comedy and animation industry with over 1milion subscribers and over 270 million views on YouTube, the platform being one of the primary avenues for promoting the works of many a such animators.

With the increase in use of various social media platforms phenom that is Tiktok, there has been a revamp in the Nigerian animated skit industry, with the emergence of content creators like Jude_oc and Israel the Creator. These skit makers have been making waves with their animated comic stories that they post on their TikTok and YouTube pages. Each video bearing their unique animation style and trademarks like Jude.oc using hilarious cameos of DC hero Batman and others and funny plots you can't help but laugh to. As good and hilariously witty these skits may be, it is still only the beginning of the colorful and vast potential that is the Nigerian animation industry.

Now, the animation industry has reimbursed its campaign to be one of the dominant players in Nollywood and Nigeria entertainment sector, with animation studios popping up left, right and centre with Anthill Studios being one of the front runners. The studio, founded by highly esteemed film maker, Niyi Akinmolayan in 2008, is among the most notable studios bringing Nigerian animation to the limelight with works like “Malika’, “Frogeck” and most notably “League of Orishas”. The League of Orishas is a 3d animated series created by 3d speacialist Eri Umusu and Niyi Akinmolayan that showcases the stories of Nigeria’s most famous mythical pantheon; The Orishas. A wonderful retelling of Yoruba cultural myths with action paced episodes and amazing characters.

With the dawn of streaming services who are ready to tap into the limitless potential of African culture and are always ready to tell a story to feed their hungry subscribers, Nigeria animators and animations seem to be well on their way to a long waited ‘oil boom’. And the grand entrance of some video streaming services into Nigeria; like Netflix,, Amazon Prime and others still to come, has done well to announce us to the world.

Netflix’s acquisition of the first Nigerian cinematic feature-length animated film ‘Lady Buckit & The Motley Mopsters’ seemed to set the stage for more of Nigerian’s penetration into the animation industry and pop culture. Of course, there were uncertainties and mixed reactions after the release but nonetheless a few positives were taken from it, such as; the wonderful and accurate portrayal of the Olobiri, Bayelsa State where the setting of the movie took place, the use of Nigerian lingua and also the use of veteran actors like; Kalu Ikeagwu, Patrick Doyle and Bimbo Akintola, overall a stellar cast. With a production led by Blessing Amidu and Chris Ihediro and a jaw dropping budget within the range of ₦400million to half a billion Naira. Funding animations are no minor feats.

Other notable animated creations are; Obi Arisukwu’s ‘OBI’ that tells the story of a middle aged man struggling to fulfill his dreams of being an artist, developed by HBO. Then “The Satchel” by Nissi Ogulu, the versatile creative uses this her work to tell the story of the Yoruba myth of creation, as two of Oduduwa’s sons try to create the world with a satchel. And other collaborations like Dark horse and YouNeek studios, a leading front in Nigerian animation.

Of recent, Disney shared the first look of “Iwaju” an animated sci-fi series set in a futuristic Lagos City. Set to premiere in 2023, it is the first wholly original series coming to Disney+ and will be produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and the African entertainment company, Kugali. The show will centre on inequality, innocence and defying the status quo.(tbh I can’t wait for it!). Some people have criticized the show and Disney for various reasons, the foremost being that Disney+ is not available yet in Nigeria, but then who knows, it might be the series to welcome the hottest streaming service at the moment to the Motherland. Others are concerned whether the cast will contain African and Nigerians, and also how the accents of the characters would fare, nonetheless I’m sure it would be a great watch.

With each passing year, the animation industry evolves to newer and greater heights. It wouldn't be long that a global classic like Naruto or Ben10 would come from one of our very own studios telling our own stories.