The forgotten African tech carrier………

BY Unknown IN IN IN IN IN IN IN






Most of the time I have been trying to advice fresh minds in college about the importance of engaging themselves in something that would bring money to them directly instead of having to work around with a huge collection of certificates looking for jobs while you can’t even afford the bus ticket charges. The art of learning things like web designing, app development, animation or even video production during your free time in your Degree course or whatever course your doing is the only thing that will make you survive in the tech industry without a really office job. I talked about Photoshop and how it has helped some youth in Dar es Salaam streets to make easy money to support their life on one of my articles few weeks back. Read the article here.
 
If you pass in the busy roads of Dar es Salaam you will see the matching guys locally called (Machinga) selling original and pirated CD’s of the animation movie “Kirikou and the Sorceress”. The movie is selling more than any other childish movie that has been sold in Dar es Salaam. By the way at some point of time you might have thought the director Michel Ocelot or the producer Didier Brunner they are African born but besides that the music on the animation movie is from the African legendary musician Youssou N’Dour everything else was done in Europe (French, Belgium and Luxembourg). While this movie receive a tremendous good results at the local movie industry, the locals still thinks animation industry is not paying in Tanzania and Africa in general. It is the time we exploit the opportunities. There are so many great cartoonist in Africa we have our local famous cartoonist Masoud Kipanya. It doesn’t matter where you initiated the idea. The quality of the story, the impact to the local community and the use of the local language can influence people to appreciate and buy your work, the only thing you have to do is to provide quality product that can sell. 
I remember this animated character “Sara” the African girl who is trying to strive and portrays the real life scenario for the African girls back in 90’s it was among the great African animated movie which brought awareness and promote gender equity among African societies. I remember we used to read journals with Sara’s story on them. The story of how Sara helped her local community to save the environment and fights her way in to get the chance to the secondary school was my best story. These animated movie when are put in the local languages, with the local producers and directors they tend to bring more impact to the community and attract more audience hence survive in the market. 
It was so irritating one time, I heard someone saying that some Mobile company in Tanzania had to travel abroad to look for someone to create animated ad for their new mobile scheme since there are very few known animation professionals in Tanzania. It is the time we understand the tech industry is vast and there is a lot of opportunities. Don’t just stick in app development and Systems administration. Try to find something that suits you more if you can. It might be the only way to escape from the deadly competition and struggle to survive in the local tech communities. Take an example of the Nigerian gamers with their projects. Who would have thought there is a chance for the game development carrier in Africa? Believe me the guys are doing well and they are among the promising startup in West Africa. Anything is possible now in the African tech community even if you want to develop your own browser or Operating systems just do it. It is the change that Africans want and only the African tech community can offer that. 
The animated video ads cost millions Tanzanian shillings when they are done by professionals from abroad why should we have our own 3d animation designers to do these task. I saw one animated movie online called Manzese in 2010, a clip which was uploaded in YouTube. It was made by a Tanzania who is living in Italy; he was promoting the movie in Michuzi Blog frankly speaking the quality was not so touching but what I liked about it the idea was touching the local community directly. 
Hint: ‘Manzese’ is a place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where middle class communities of Dar es Salaam are living. The place is dense populated and security system is very poor. Manzese reflects these kinds of places in African towns and cities. 
The story was about Mr. Kindunde a guy who was abused by the local official. I think he was trying to show how some of the African leaders are abusing their political powers to exploit their citizens.
Animators out there your service is highly needed and if you doubted if the animation carrier is paying in Africa then you are still sleeping wake up before it’s too late. There are a lot of opportunities out there. Just make sure you share your video on social networking sites after you upload them in YouTube and try to find some mentors who can help you to sell your products or even get a chance to make an ad for Vodacom Tanzania.