海角大神

When Ridwan Moshood was 12, a group of bullies from his middle school in Lagos, Nigeria, chased him down and tipped a full trash can onto his head.

鈥淕arbage boy,鈥� they taunted, laughing.

The experience haunted Mr. Moshood, and to cope, he began to sketch a cartoon character he named Garbage Boy. Over the years, he scribbled Garbage Boy鈥檚 crime-fighting adventures into flipbooks that he used to make short animations. Later, after teaching himself to animate on YouTube, he began making flash-based cartoons about his scrappy teenage hero as well. And later still, as Mr. Moshood prepared to enter the story into an animation contest, he added a sidekick 鈥� a trash can with superpowers named ... Trash Can.

Now, the story that began as Mr. Moshood鈥檚 real-life teenage nightmare is becoming a Cartoon Network original series, 鈥淕arbage Boy and Trash Can,鈥� which will be the network鈥檚 first superhero show from Africa when it debuts next year.

鈥淚 want kids watching to understand that it doesn鈥檛 matter what people call you 鈥� you can be called garbage boy and still become a doctor or a nurse or a superhero,鈥� he says. Or in his case, a professional animator. 鈥淚鈥檓 turning what happened to me into something positive.鈥�

鈥淕arbage Boy and Trash Can鈥� is also part of a broader push by international streaming services to diversify their content, and especially to add original animated shows from across Africa. After the success of the Marvel film 鈥淏lack Panther,鈥� superhero shows in particular seem to have struck a chord with international distributors, observers say.

The universal appeal of animated kids fighting crime doesn鈥檛 hurt, either. Earlier this year, YouTube debuted a Kenyan-made show called 鈥淪uper Sema,鈥� about a math and science whiz kid called to save her village from a robot villain. Next year, Netflix will premiere its own superhero cartoon, 鈥淢ama K鈥檚 Team 4,鈥� which follows a group of high school girls in a futuristic version of Lusaka, the Zambian capital, as they outsmart bad guys and save the world. And Disney鈥檚 streaming services have multiple African superhero shows and films in the works, including 鈥淜iya and the Kimoja Heroes,鈥� about a ballet- and martial arts-loving young girl whose magic headband turns her into a superhero.

鈥淗istorically the flow of entertainment and information has been so much from Europe and the U.S. to Africa, so to have it go the other way is so beautiful and important,鈥� says Gloria Huwiler, a writer on 鈥淢ama K鈥檚 Team 4鈥� who grew up in Lusaka. 鈥淭o see yourself on screen, especially as a superhero, changes what you can aspire to be.鈥澛�

A new normal on screen

Like the creator of 鈥淢ama K,鈥� Malenga Mulendema, Mr. Moshood grew up obsessed with cartoons. He spent hours watching Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, imagining himself as the protagonists of his favorite shows, like the boy-genius inventor from 鈥淒exter鈥檚 Laboratory.鈥� He rarely stopped to consider, he says, why none of his favorite superheroes looked like him.

鈥淚 was just busy wondering how those shows were made,鈥� he says. Eventually, he started spending long hours at a local internet cafe, where the sympathetic owner would often comp his bill, he says, as he streamed video after video on how to animate. But with no formal training programs for animators in Nigeria at the time, he wondered if he鈥檇 ever be able to make a living doing the thing he loved.

Then, in 2018, Mr. Moshood saw an advertisement for Cartoon Network Africa鈥檚 Creative Lab contest, calling for African animators to pitch the network new show ideas.

He suggested a show chronicling the adventures of a Nigerian schoolboy who wants to save the world, but is always getting himself into trouble, and his friend, an extraterrestrial trash can with superpowers who is forever sweeping in to save him.

Mr. Moshood won the contest, which gave him the chance to create the pilot of his show. In June, Cartoon Network Africa announced that it had commissioned a 10-episode season of 鈥淕arbage Boy and Trash Can鈥� to air in 2022.

Meanwhile, after a similar African talent search contest, the South African animation studio Triggerfish developed Ms. Mulendema鈥檚 show, 鈥淢ama K鈥檚 Team 4.鈥� It was then picked up by Netflix, which will debut the first 16-episode season in 2022.

鈥淚 expect viewers to fall in love with Zambia through these girls,鈥� says Omotunde Akiode, a Nigerian TV writer who is part of the show鈥檚 all-African-women writers room. 鈥淚 want them to learn Zambian English phrases the way we all learned American English phrases from TV. I hope it鈥檒l open up the continent to kids from all over the world.鈥�

Game-changing film

Stuart Forrest, the CEO of Triggerfish, has noticed a pronounced opening of space in recent years for African shows on international television. He traces it in part to the success of 鈥淏lack Panther,鈥� which 鈥� although it was American 鈥� introduced the world to an all-African superhero universe.

鈥淭here鈥檚 been traditional wisdom among distributors and people in the TV business that you can have a few secondary characters or even a primary character who鈥檚 Black if they鈥檙e Samuel Jackson,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut if you want to go with an all-Black cast you鈥檙e catering to an all-Black audience. That was blown out of the water by the success of 鈥楤lack Panther.鈥欌��

The pandemic has also accelerated the creation of animated content more generally, since its supply chain is less tangled up in restrictions on gathering and movement.

And in those fortuitous circumstances, up-and-coming African animators like Mr. Moshood, who is now in his mid-20s, have found a space to thrive. In addition to 鈥淕arbage Boy and Trash Can,鈥� he also recently co-founded a studio called Pure Garbage, where he hopes to incubate other young African animators.

鈥淣ow that 鈥楪arbage Boy and Trash Can鈥� has been picked up by an international network, I hope other networks out there will see what Africans can do,鈥� he says.