Mzanzi Jump: The “animefication” of Africa [Part 2]

Mzansi Jump Series: Part 2 from GrayMonstr 

Born as a South African, anime has always been a part of my life. Whether intentionally or not, it is part of the fondness of mine and previous generations’ childhoods. But… then I started thinking, “what about the rest of Africa?” Since anime has become a global phenomenon, how much has it affected the continent I’m from? So… down the rabbit hole we go!

Now, you’d probably be asking yourselves the same question that I was when writing this. “How do I measure popularity without having been to all of Africa?” It’s a tricky question but after some proper brainstorming, an answer as simple as ever popped up. Conventions! It’s the one thing every Otaku, Geek and Gamer always looks forward to in the year. So I went digging and found gold! Believe it or not, Africa has had up to 26 individual Conventions over the last 33 years, with a whopping 6 in South Africa. Icon CGC in Johannesburg, started in 1992, kick started them all off but the first one outside of my home country, also being the second oldest in the continent, is the Coco Bulles in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Coco Bulles was the leading Animation and Cartoon Festival in Africa having 8 events in the last 24 years, with each festival focusing on local and international growth for African animation, comics and art based storytelling, with international guests from the countries that are leading and pioneering the industry.

Talking about pioneers, just a hop and a skip down the African coast to Nigeria, in the city of Lagos, you’d find yourself in one of the continent’s hotspots of anime and geek culture. Most notably visible with two of their largest events annually. Lagos Comic Con and Eko Anime Fest. Lagos being the leading African country in independant comics, holds a massive culture within manga and anime, inspiring a passionate Cosplay Culture that is shown in excess at Eko Anime Fest where they host the country’s largest cosplay competition, over the last 3 years, which is split between 4 categories. Each category winner going home with a cash prize, and the best male and female cosplayers being crowned King and Queen of the Eko Anime Fest of that year.

If we look just across the Sahara, a very similar competition occurs too. Hosted in Cairo, Egypt, you can find what started as a humble get-together of anime fans, in 2013, has now grown into the country’s main Con for all things anime, geek, gaming, cosplay and more, Egycon. What makes Egycon so unique though is they host several smaller events throughout the year. Cairo Cosplay Party being the competition I mentioned earlier, bringing some of the best cosplayers in Egypt and the Middle East to participate.

There are so many other Conventions I’d love to speak about, each showing the beauty and diversity we have as Anime fans no matter where in Africa you’re from, and showing just how universal anime has affected our continent. Know this, no matter where you are, there is an anime fan near you.

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