Digital Diaspora: African Comics and Accessibility

The internet has broken borders and has given readers the chance to learn about their ancestors and find new cultural icons to inspire them. 

In the Kugali Anthology: Raki Edition, the Oro comic plays with mythological deities as well as historical characters--and the only access to these comics are through digital formats. The most important element of this series is not the rehashing of known tropes (or deities), but that these stories are accessible internationally. According to Hafeez Oluwa, writer of Oro--originally published by MAD! Comics--is not to stay rooted in one past or one location, but to create new worlds. “It’s not based on Nigerian history but borrows some story elements from the past and the present, mixed with fiction. The characters will span the continent – North, West, East and South Africa.” It is the power of access that gives weight to these stories, the power of the internet, which allows for, as Chinua Achebe once said, “a balance of stories.” 

In addition, websites like The Comic Republic provide new (and free) content regularly to reach those of us yearning for a sense of home, past, present, and future. According to Kamara Horne, access is the most important element of these new writers and artists. 

I was puzzled as to how a comic book company could sustain itself on free content. However, [Creative Republic’s] creative team feels so strongly that their work will resonate with readers, especially African-Americans who are eager to share African stories with their children, that they wanted to give the first issues of the comics away for free to increase awareness and prove to investors that there is a market for the African superhero internationally.

Digital formats of African graphic novels and comics, as well as making many of them free and easily accessible to a diasporic audience, these writers, artists, and publishing companies are bringing their audience to a home.  As James Baldwin once opined, “it wasn’t that he was close to his roots, but that he was close to some roots as old and valid as his own” (Price of the Ticket). The roots that readers can connect to through African comics not only feeds a hungry audience, it also gives a glimpse of future possibilities by showcasing the creativity of African writers and artists to the larger global community.

In the Kugali Anthology, several writers were interviewed about their process and their motivation for creating comics. Ziki Nelson, author of Iku and the co-founder of the anthology, focused on the importance of finding the balance between roots and the future. “Every great story works off two concepts: Nostalgia and Novelty” (Kugali 168). It is easy to focus on the stories of historical characters, deities, ancestors, and mythologies, but these writers are not simply dwelling in the past. For example, Comic Republic’s contact page reads “reach us from anywhere in the galaxy” which is more than apt. With their huge catalog that spans several different worlds--universes, in fact--Comic Republic is acknowledging the importance of their accessibility and the importance of imagining worlds rather than revisiting old ones.   

The ability to reach African comics from “anywhere in the galaxy” also creates a community of comic enthusiasts, nerds, and geeks that have longed for access to conventions, comics, and speculative fiction--and even more so ones that represent them. Juni Ba, creator of Kayin and Abeni, explains his thirst for the availability of the ComicCons and the local comic book shops as his impetus for journeying outside of Senegal. “My biggest challenge, living in Senegal, was that we didn’t have access to conventions, most comics, no theater (last one closed when I was a teen so I have fond memories of going there as a child) and really felt like Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, eager to leave for better pastures” (Ba, Kugali, 99). For comic, science fiction, and fantasy fans, Ba’s reference to Luke Skywalker is more than apt, it echoes the longing of black nerds to join the adventure of fandoms.

The digital comics coming out of Africa and their accessibility is akin to going down to the corner bodega and browsing the latest Marvel or DC comics and then discussing them at the lunch counter. Readers can join online groups and offer recommendations and debate plots, characters, and artwork.

What is compelling is how the crowdsourcing of Kugali did not only come from African nations, but globally. Thanks to the relative meritocracy of the internet, the founders of Kugali were able to find an entire Pan-African community that helped ensure the creation of the anthology. “The internet is not (yet) a monopolized and controlled medium of communication, it is unencumbered by the requirements of radio and television:” basically everybody who has access to a computer, a modem, and an internet service provider can be creator and receptor of information” (Stockl 75). It allows for people like the Kugali founders to have an ability to be the threat to Disney that Nelson confidently claims while giving their audience a feeling of not just contribution to, but ownership of, these African works being created. Ownership of their own content--and the audience’s investment in their work--is difficult through the classic methods of publication and distribution. In this space, comics as digital literature continues a long African tradition of connecting the griot directly to the listener. 

There is an ownership that is created by having access to African comics--people from the diaspora can feel linked and reconnected to their roots. The internet doesn’t just connect a person to their home, but to a home they may have never seen. It, perhaps, increases the feeling of Pan-Africanism and for hungry Black comic readers, it also increases their feeling of belonging in a diaspora. Still there is more to unpack about the impact of digital African comics and their creators. The vitality of the language through the seasoning of anglophone comics with pidgins, creoles, and contemporary regional slang adds even more intimacy with the continent. The highly stylized comics are less mimicry and more an evolution of the genre.