Makanaki Festival: A Place for Animators in Africa

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Makanaki Festival held in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt. It is a festival like none other before it. This was a meeting place for animation creatives and we can say that it was the first of its kind.

Created to showcase the possibilities for animation movies on the African Continent, Makanaki Festival delivered above expectations. It offered a chance for animators and illustrators as well as cartoonists to show their skills to the world.

Uncovering Specific Skills at Makanaki Festival

Whilst the main purpose of Makanaki Festival was to create a platform for animation creatives, it also served as an opportunity to analyze and evaluate outcomes. It served as a means to uncover personal aptitude.

First was The Artsy workshop and showcase which held on the 6th July, 2019. This was a meetup for creatives in Port Harcourt City.

The Urgent Need for Makanaki Festival

Amazingly, this was such a necessary event. There has been a rising urgency about the need for a conversation surrounding the need for Africans to put out content. There is no doubt that there is a dearth of mainstream content produced by Africans for Africans.

Interestingly, and much to the delight of the organizers, 80% of the attendees were creatives. We were particularly proud of the fact that about 20% were students from the University of Portharcourt (UNIPORT). This, after several failed attempts to reach out to the student creative community in the UNIPORT.

The Artsy Event

The Artsy event started off with a 2-day workshop. Here writers, as well as illustrators/artists, had a task to create a short story with static characters and voiceovers. The venue was Oaksprings Hill Schools at Woji in Port Harcourt, on the 3rd and 4th July 2019.

The Showcase Event

Additionally, a showcase event held on the 6th of July, 2019. We had a fine line up of speakers including Prof. Alagoa Ebiegberi as our keynote speaker. The teams of writers and artists were able to show the beautiful videos they had made during the workshop.

To conclude, we realize that there is a need to begin a conversation. And, this need is urgent. We need to get serious about putting out mainstream content by Africans for Africans. This is a need that Makanaki Festival hopes to address in the future.

The People Behind Makanaki Festival

Makanaki Festival is run by a team of intensely passionate people. This team is led by Chinaza Okorie, the founder of the startup company Playwork Dreams. Ms. Okorie is a Software Engineer, Educationist, and Activist (For reformed education in Nigeria).

She is passionate about re-orientating and educating the African Continent which is why she founded Playwork Dreams which creates a platform that showcases high- quality entertainment with CG animations and computer-generated imagery sorely centered at telling stories that are authentically African and also creating the greatest network of animators in the continent.

To find out more about the Makanaki Festival, visit their Indiegogo page.