“SUPA TEAM 4”: NETFLIX’S FIRST AFRICAN ANIME

The anime series was created by a Zambian writer Malenga Mulendema. The series was released this 2023 in the month of July. It was set in a futuristic version of Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia.

“Supa Team 4” talks about four undercover teen superheroes on a quest to save the world after being recruited by an ex-spy. The teens are challenged with juggling secondary school while using their powers to make the world better. Netflix wrote that the kids’ series is “a fresh superhero story about girlhood, strength, and African ingenuity.”

The writer of this series created it after pitching it at a Pan-African talent search by animation studio “Triggerfish” and she featured amongst one of the winners in 2015. The series was first announced in 2019 and Mulendema said she set the story in her home country to “Illustrate that anyone from anywhere can be a “superhero”.

Within the recent years, Netflix had decided to diversify their production outside the United States which made them engage in big series like Spanish Smash “Money Heist”, South Korean drama “Squid Game” and others. By April 2023, it decided to expand its operations in Africa and give an opportunity to African story tellers to have a voice on the global stage. As they came across, Mulendema’s work of art, they joined and produced it making it their first African Anime Series set in Zambia. The movies stars actresses like “Pamela Nomvete”, “Zowa Ngwira”, “Namisa Mdlalose”.

“Supa Team 4” being the first African anime series to be released by Netflix shows a lot of bright future and great future for the anime sector in Africa.

Delia Nyadi