“Basically the world’s largest black nation doesn’t produce any cartoon shows for its children that reflected any of its culture or population. That sounded crazy to me.” Adamu Waziri, to HuffPost
Two DVDs and a toy range later, Adamu Waziri’s ‘Bino and Fino’ has come a long way since he first came up with a concrete concept for it in 2008.
Bino and Fino tells the story of a brother and sister in a modern day African city.
Now the show is headed for Brazil. Here’s where it gets interesting; the show is headed for Brazil because there has been a high demand for a Portuguese version, the official language of Brazil.
This project is clearly important because, according to Adamu,
African history and culture is not being fully represented in their children’s media, let alone people of African descent.
Bear in mind that Brazil has the largest population of people of African descent.
He added:
Children love cartoons. It is a powerful media tool that entertains and educates them. Right now across the black African diaspora and on the African continent, there are few cartoon shows that specifically showcase, teach about and positively, genuinely portray Africa in any way. This means that during their formative years, children are not getting good educational and entertaining content that reflects them and their heritage. Most of what they get is European, Asia or America-centric. This is a problem because the balance is too one-sided.
Now Adamu and his team have started an IndieGogo campaign to help them raise $5000 to help fund the translation project and get it ready before November.
Watch one episode here:
Comments
