It’s not Disney’s to create African shows for kids – Waziri

Weekend Magazine: Could you tell us a bit about yourself? Adamu Waziri: I’ve always been into design and drawing since childhood. I used to draw like mad when young. I think it drove my mum crazy. That is why I studied architecture.  However, I knew I wanted to do either cartoons or comics because I […]

Weekend Magazine: Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
Adamu Waziri: I’ve always been into design and drawing since childhood. I used to draw like mad when young. I think it drove my mum crazy. That is why I studied architecture.  However, I knew I wanted to do either cartoons or comics because I had a passion for them. I always watched cartoons as a child and in fact haven’t stopped to this day.  I later did a Masters in computer animation after convincing my parents I wasn’t mad. I then proceeded to work in various animation companies in London, learning my craft for about 10 years. I wasn’t the most talented, but I worked very hard at it and did relatively well for myself.
When I came back to Nigeria, I set up my own animation company, EVCL mainly because no one could afford to hire me. I had to adjust to the Nigerian context regarding my chosen industry. It was a scary and interesting time as I had been only used to the employee/creative way of doing things whilst in the U.K. and now had to switch overnight to being a business owner.
As I worked I quickly realised I wanted my company to create its own original content and shows in a similar manner to Disney and the like.
The first project I embarked on was the production of a Nigerian educational children’s cartoon series, ‘Bino and Fino’. I’ve had the idea for a Nigerian-based cartoon for over a decade. I suppose it is normal as artist / animator. You tend to want to create something that relates to where you are from.  The idea of ‘Bino and Fino’ show as it exists now, didn’t materialise until about 2008.  I’d always known that we have no indigenous cartoons for our children to watch, but it took me a while to really understand how damaging this situation is.
Basically, Nigeria, the world’s largest black nation doesn’t produce any animated content for its children. I mean, doesn’t that sound crazy to you? With all the wealth and talent present we hardly have produced one programme of note for children to watch. And we all know children love cartoons. In fact, it goes beyond cartoons.
What we produce can’t compete with the firepower of foreign shows. I’ve nothing against foreign shows as I also grew up on them. But back then we also had some TV shows like ‘Tales By Moonlight’ which now, is not like it used to be. Today, we’ve generations of young Nigerian children growing up watching exclusively foreign materials with no representation of themselves as blacks, Nigerians and Africans.  I got tired of this and decided to take action in whatever way I could.
How was it bringing the concept to fruition?
It’s been an interesting journey so far with many ups and downs.  Having the idea is the easy part. Execution is the problem. Producing animation takes a long time. The production techniques for images you see on screen are tedious and repetitive, depending on the style.
For instance some Nollywood films can take about 2-5 weeks to shoot hours of footage. It can take years to get hours of top quality animation content. Disney usually takes about that length of time to produce one of its movies.
This spells a lot of financial investments and will still take a relatively long period one realises a return on investment. When I ran out of personal funds, family and friends who believed in the project stepped in.
Another issue was finding the staff to do the project. In 2009, we aimed to produce six seven-minute episodes for the first DVD, which is roughly about 50 minutes of animation. 
Four years ago the availability of animators in Abuja was a lot less that it is now. No finished animated TV projects had been finished that I knew of, so there was no precedent to follow.
It was one thing working as an animator in London as part of a large company. Heading   my own company in Nigeria trying to produce an animated kids TV show is totally different. We didn’t and still don’t have a huge pool of animation production experience here.
As far as I know, ‘ Bino and Fino’ is still the only educational cartoon from Nigeria that has been completed, broadcast on TV in various countries and is available for purchase. It was easier to get the show sold and distributed abroad than in Nigeria. Luckily we have now found solutions enabling Nigerians to get the DVD delivered to them. But we still have a long way to go yet until I am satisfied with our Nigerian distribution network.
Why do you call it an educational cartoon?
The ‘Bino and Fino’ show is one that has education at its heart; something that I am very passionate about. I wanted something that targeted young children and inspires them to learn. We could have done a cartoon show that was only focused on entertaining such as Ben 10 as opposed to educating whilst entertaining.
It probably wasn’t the most popular direction to take, but I decided that having an educational show would have more value. Children’s media is a very powerful tool. It is undervalued and pretty much ignored here in Nigeria which is ridiculous. Look at the impact an educational kid’s show like ‘Sesame Street’ has had across the world. I still remember what that show taught me all those years ago.
How do you develop the storylines?
I had an idea of the broad topics I wanted to the show to cover. I put together rough ideas and then got in touch with Kunle Dada who is a wonderful writer based in Lagos. He added flesh to the stories and script and I signed off on the final drafts. We hope to take the same approach for the new episodes.
What themes have you treated?
Having full creative control, we had no real restrictions on which theme or topic to handle. Also, a reason for doing ‘Bino and Fino’ was to be able to tell stories and handle issues foreign animation companies may not handle. Issues based on the black African experience.
Actually, I don’t think it is Disney’s or any other foreign company’s duty or responsibility to create African focused shows for our kids. I hear a lot of parents complaining that they don’t do so. I wonder why they want an American-based international corporation to tell their story as Africans or Nigerians. That’s our job. That is why you have to give the Nollywood and Nigerian music industry credit for putting aspects of the Nigerian experience on the map. 
For the first episode, we tackled the subject of Nigerian Independence Day and colonialism. Not something you would immediately associate with a children’s cartoon, but apart from having parades, when it comes to TV shows marking the event on the day, children are left out of the equation. We released that episode on October 1, 2010 to mark our 50th independence anniversary and that of other African countries. This has proved to be our most popular episode online so far.
In other episodes we looked into teaching the importance of eating healthy foods and teaching kids about various types of animals. Within all of these episodes, we did our best to infuse aspects of Nigerian and sub-Saharan African culture we could to give the children a cultural grounding.
In future episodes, we intend to cover some of these themes other themes like educating children on Nigerian/African historical and cultural aspects such as languages; encouraging them to behave well with good moral stories whilst providing a great, wholesome, family  entertainment platform. We’ll also treat promoting unity and tolerance amongst tribes, cultures and religions amongst Nigerian children as well as encouraging them to have pride in their culture and heritage.
So far we’ve released three episodes. The original intention was six, but our budget ran out on the production of the first DVD. We are now gearing up to produce over 25 new episodes based on the popularity of the first ones.
What challenges are there being an animator in Nigeria?
There are many challenges with being an animator, especially in Nigeria. Like other creative and design fields many people don’t understand how much hard work is involved and undervalue the work we do. Many clients think you just press a button and the computer does the animation for you which obviously isn’t the case.
Training is another problem as our universities are not geared up to teach animation. In fact, before you get to the subject of training, you have to get your parents’ or guardians’ acceptance of animation as a viable professional path in Nigeria. I can understand why they wouldn’t, but as the job market is so crazy right now in the country, there are no guarantees any more. We also need new industries to soak up all the graduates and non-graduates. Not everyone can be a lawyer or engineer. It’s only a matter of time; with hard work and organisation the animation sector will become a significant employer in the country.
What informed the choices of the characters in the animation?
The idea of family and community is still very important so I wanted a cartoon that reflected that. That is why you have three generations of family represented as characters in the show. You have Bino and Fino, their parents and their grandparents as major characters.
I also wanted to add a magical element to capture children’s imagination, so we created a character called Zeena the Magic Butterfly. There are more to come in the new episodes that I can’t mention yet.
The designs of the characters have evolved over time. The main focus is to have well designed characters that appeal to children and can hold their own against the designs of the international cartoon shows.  There should be no quality drop between ‘Bino and Fino’ and well known international cartoon shows.
You were featured on the CNN…
 That was an interesting one. I got a call out of the blue one day and it was a reporter from the CNN who wanted to feature the show. It was a great opportunity and we had a great response to it.  The show was also featured on the BBC worldwide, MTV, Vox Africa and other foreign media networks.  At the time, we were not getting any interest from Nigeria. It took a while to start getting interest here.
But to this day we still get more interest from abroad than from here. The reaction to show especially from Nigerians and Africans in Diaspora has been wonderful. We’ve fans of the show from many countries including Japan and Korea.  
If it was up to me, I would have the show on every Nigerian channel. We’re looking for sponsors so that ‘Bino and Fino’ can go on air. That is something we’re working hard on, but as we produce an educational show targeted at young children, we have to be very careful. We can’t just accept the money of any sponsor as some products might not be right for children even if they are marketed to them.
Another interesting ‘problem’ is the issue of glamour and hype. Football, the music scene, Nollywood, fashion, beauty pageants and the rest are glamorous.
Sponsors are attracted to what sells or what they feel sells. Children’s educational entertainment is not glamorous. It is considered ‘boring’ and not really serious by many decision-makers especially if you are producing a cartoon. I’ve actually had someone ask me why a grown man like me is doing cartoons!
Meanwhile, parents are asking us every day when the show will be on Nigerian TV stations. Actually, Access Bank has decided to take the chance on nationally sponsoring a children’s educational programme. It’s a start but ideally they should be able to sponsor a local product. I want a situation where they hunt out and sponsor shows like ours.
However, it is up to producers, parents and children to convince companies that they can benefit from sponsoring well-made children’s shows. Corporations are understandably interested in making money. They are not charities. I learnt this very quickly after a few presentations to possible sponsors. Most don’t care about the beneficial cultural, educational and entertainment value of shows like ‘Bino and Fino’. The main question is can ‘Bino and Fino’ help them sell more products? That is fine with me as long they realise children’s educational entertainment has a place.
The government also has a part to play. Not only with funding, but with broadcast quotas which are enforced. Countries like France, Australia, the US and the UK have such. It is compulsory for a percentage of airtime on their local TV stations to consist of locally made children’s programmings. These countries have set aside a budget for children’s programming funded by their government through public broadcasting institutions like the BBC and PBS in the US. Nigeria should do the same.
Right now we are looking for sponsors for a special Independence Day broadcast in October of our show for kids on Nigerian TV for the first time. We’ll see how that goes.
How would you evaluate children’s entertainment in Nigeria asides, amusement parks and other such platforms?
Poor! There isn’t enough safe space for children to play and learn whilst having fun. Most amusement parks have little to offer, but I admire their efforts.
But honestly, as a country we are really letting our children down and we adults are to blame. Children are this country’s greatest asset. Not oil. So, as far as I’m concerned, we are wasting our greatest asset.
A lot more work needs to be done before we can say we are catering for our children’s recreational needs. We still are not even giving many of them the basics.
Some of your fans indicate that there is a ‘lack of black/African cartoons and positive educational stuff for the kids’. How far do you think ‘Bino and Fino’ can adequately satisfy this?
It’s a serious situation. I don’t think one show can fill the void. There are billions of blacks and Africans around the world. It is almost like saying Sesame Street is the only children’s show that the U.S. needs. In the U.S. hundreds of shows are created yearly. Not all succeed but that illustrates how far back we are as Africans and how much work we need to do.
One country is producing more than the entire continent combined. We need at least 50 shows to even start to adequately fulfil the need in my opinion. However, I do know that the ‘Bino and Fino’ show can provide a very credible, positive, powerful black/African alternative for those who need it for their children. Our show is part of the solution to the problem.
What’s your favourite cartoon programme and character?
There are so many. There are the classics like Tom and Jerry, Voltron, G-Force-Battle of the Planets, Spiderman, Danger Mouse and many more. I also love more adult ones from countries like Japan and France. It is important to note that animation is just like any other medium. It is just another channel to tell stories. If I were forced to choose a favourite character aimed at children, it would be between Hey Arnold and Charlie Brown both from the U.S. They were really good at showing children the ups and downs of life as opposed to many shows today that pretend everything in life is always rosy.
Reading your profile and fans’ comments, many westerners consider ‘Bino and Fino’ their link to African culture and way of life. How well would you say the cartoon has portrayed this?
I would say we’re another avenue through which to connect with the continent; a flavour of it if you will. We want to add a genuine African perspective to the arena of children’s media globally. Notwithstanding, Africa is a large continent and no show or product can claim to speak for all of it. I would say that as the show progresses and gets more popular around the world, we will be able to show many young foreign audiences a ‘human’ face to Africa.
Usually when you get animated content for children set in Africa you rarely get any humans. It is usually full of animals like in the films ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Madagascar’. On the rare occasion, where there is an African character in an animated children’s film, they are poorly done. It used to annoy me before, but now I don’t care anymore. I can’t expect Disney, for example, to invest in accurately portraying elements of African life. That’s our jobs as Nigerians and Africans. We have done it in a small but impactful way via our show and it has been wonderful connecting with people of all nationalities.
What are future plans for ‘Bino and Fino’ in the next two to three years?
We are producing a whole full new season. This will enable more TV stations worldwide to purchase and broadcast the show. Once that happens, the show will take on a life of its own and it will be hard to predict its path.
We’re just staying focused on the day-to-day grind with our eye on the long term goal of giving Nigerians and many other Africans a viable indigenous alternative when they watch TV. I will not stop until we fulfil that mission.