‘Iwájú’, First Pan-African Series to premiere on Disney+

On By Dr. Y.In Great Laughter

For the past few days, I have received several messages about Iwájú, the first pan-African series to premiere on Disney+. I congratulate the authors, and send them encouraging messages to keep up the great work.

Excerpts below are from AfricaNews.

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Video on demand service Disney+ has collaborated with pan–African studio Kugali Media for a innovative animated series set in futuristic Lagos – Nigeria.

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The series which is expected to premiere globally on February 28 explores themes of class and defiance. …

Iwájú’s casted Nigerian vocal talents Simisola Gbadamosi as Tola, a young girl from the wealthy island, and Siji Soetan as her best friend Kole, a self-taught tech expert.

The duo explore the dangerous tapestry of a neo-futuristic Lagos filled with greed and corruption alongside voice actors Femi Branch, Dayo Okeniyi, and Weruche Opia.

The soundtrack, out March 1st, will feature African-influenced music by renowned Nigerian composer Ré Olunuga. “I rarely bring my own emotions into writing a score. In this case, it couldn’t be avoided,” Olunuga said in a press release.

“In addition to Tola’s adventurous spirit, Kole’s ingenuity, and the many other fun and beautiful emotional threads explored in Iwájú – the score is steeped in my own very deep love for Lagos and its multiplicitous layers.”

7 thoughts on “‘Iwájú’, First Pan-African Series to premiere on Disney+”

  1. I’ve heard about that series being made. I know it’s not part of the Disney Animated Canon, but I can’t believe it’s taken this long for Mickey Mouse to have something that takes place in Africa with actual African human characters and (GASP!) actually tells you which country it takes place in?!! Great googly moogly, the House of Mouse FINALLY got involved with an animated work that doesn’t involve the Africa Without Black People and Africa Is A Country tropes! Seeing this compared to The Lion King and Tarzan has a shocking amount of contrast. Even though I have lots of reservations towards the Disney corporation, at least it’s somewhat of a start in their animation department even if they didn’t animate it.

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    1. Thank you for your comment Ospreyshire… I , too, have a lot of reservations towards Disney after many years of mistrust, and as you pointed, Africa being seen only as a land of animals (as if humans did not live there) Lion King, Madagascar… with no country name… let’s wait and see.

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      1. No problem and I don’t blame you for feeling that way about specially since you’re directly from the continent. It’s certainly frustrating how they only focused on talking animals or only Wazungu being the only humans allowed to be characters for decades. I know it’s not going to be an overnight thing, but we’ll see what happens. Speaking of Disney and Africa, you’ll appreciate this standup comedy clip: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IZcNnzqdcN0

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      3. Exactly! I’m glad you saw the humor and truth in that video. Not surprisingly, I saw comments on different sites from people who were triggered by his joke. Even though the joke was about 90s Disney movies, you do have a great point about Princess and the Frog since Tiana turns into a frog for at least half the movie! Their first Black Disney Princess Kida from Atlantis isn’t even acknowledged as you never even see her in the marketing with the other characters as well!

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      5. Don’t feel bad. They never really promoted her. Atlantis wasn’t that well-received of a movie even though some Disney fans considered it one of the more underrated movies. However, Atlantis was also accused of plagiarizing characters and storylines from the 90s anime Nadia: Secret of Blue Water. Hmm…wouldn’t be the first time Disney stole stuff from Japanese animation, right? I guess she wasn’t part of that Princess Breakfast Club as I sometimes call them. No problem!

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