Henry Akubuiro
Just like TV cartoons which have become a must-watch these days for African children, video games have also become part of their leisure routines. Like in the former, most of the characters and storylines being featured are drawn from Western archetypes. In the absence of stories by moonlight, today’s African children are further distanced from their cultural heritage by modern media.
But how many of us have thought about using video games to sell African oral traditions to the rest of the world? Video games cannot only be used as a tool for promotion of our cultural heritage, but it can also be used to tackle negative stereotypes about Africa being a continent of poverty, corruption and wars.
This view was echoed in “Folktale in the World of Digital Media”, a paper presented by Mariusz Kraśniewski (PhD) of the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences, at the Nigerian Folklore Society’s 5th Annual Congress and 14th NFS Conference held at Idris Abdulkarim Auditorium, National Universities Commission, Abuja, April 29-30, last year.
Today, the presence of Africa’s folkloric traditions is still not felt on the continent, needless to say, worldwide, which has made revisiting this topic inevitable. The statistics on ground are quite worrisome, yet we have the capacity and materials to advance this project in the world of digital media.
Arising from its annual conference in Kano in 2018, the Nigerian Folklore Society (NFS), led by Dr. Bukar Usman, had canvassed the need to explore animations and cartoons for the purpose of promoting our cultural heritage. The aforementioned paper by Kraśniewski, thus, served as a recommendation requested by Dr. Usman as a supplementary document to the communiqué of that Kano conference.
According to the Polish scholar, the world video game industry is a well-established market with huge economic value, and growing economic importance of the video game industry comes along with the significant growth of its cultural role. Marked by the development of PONG and sale of the first arcade unit by Atari in 1972, he said, the video game industry started to grow up to the shape we know today and experienced constant technological progress.
“Over the years, it evolved from simple products with limited graphics into a medium capable of telling complex and multidimensional stories with, or without, the use of stunning visuals,” said Kraśniewski.
One of the compelling reasons sub-Saharan Africa should tap into this technology is because the representation of the African continent in world media products is limited and usually follows often derogatory stereotypes about the continent and its population. Hence, negative image of sub-Saharan Africa in Western media gravely influences the existing products that in turn reflect popular stereotypes.
If this one-sided narrative has to be rewritten, we don’t have to look too far for help, according to Kraśniewski. It is imperative that “the African-themed games that are faithful to the African tradition and folklore have to be produced by African developers.”
This is where Nigeria comes in, regarding the economic and population potential in sub-Saharan Africa. “The country is already present on the developers’ map for the mobile game industry and data suggests that this segment of the market will be growing on the fastest rate. The leading Nigerian company ‒ Maliyo (established in 2012) ‒ has 7 games available in Google Play Store (8 in portfolio) and a platform for on-line distribution,” he said.
As indicated by the Polish scholar, there are already efforts on ground by Nigerian, Kenyan and Cameroonian tech companies to produce African contents for video games. “If we put into consideration the changes in society and its entertainment habits, it has to be agreed that the approach towards oral literature has to be updated to fully explore its potential in the world of digital media,” he said.
Among the advantages of video game as a medium include its potential to capture the spirit of storytelling and use for the promotion of folklore, both on domestic and international level. Needless to say, it combines story with visual and audio aspects.
It is also interactive, and the need for constant participation from the user situates video game closer to the idea of the traditional storytelling, said Kraśniewski. Moreover, player’s active participation in the story can result in personal attachment to the characters and thus encourage further reading and exploration of the country’s rich folkloristic heritage.
Moreover, it will also give the young and aspiring creators the platform to polish their skills in game development, while, at the same time, will promote oral literature and folklore among other generations.
The initial steps to achieve this, he outlined, include creating a stipendiary fund for the production of video games based on folklore and oral tradition, using video games to promote oral literature based on the publication and research records of the NFS, organising a series of workshops in game development and workshops in crowdfunding through websites like kickstarter.com, indiegoigo.com, etcetera.
Other steps are establishing contacts with Nigerian or regional fan base of comic books and video games and conducting the survey, based on the contacts listed above or on the basis of focus group (preferably students) to evaluate video game and pop-cultural preferences.
Aside the stipendiary support recommended for the NFS in the development process to ensure the faithfulness of the adaptation of the traditional stories, the onus lies on Nigerian content developers to invest in this medium, as it promises huge economic and cultural benefits in the long run.