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African Superheroes Show Up Increasingly In Online Gaming

African Superheroes Show Up Increasingly In Online Gaming


As mobile devices become more accessible in Africa, African superheroes are showing up increasingly in online gaming.

Ghana-based Leti Arts has created a uniquely African superhero universe, according to an AlJazeera video interview. Leti’s sole purpose is to blaze new trails in the world of entertainment, said company CEO Eyram Tawia.

Ndoni Khanyile interviewed Tawia at his company headquarters in Accra.

“The gaming industry in the U.S. is larger than the movie and music industries combined,” Tawia said. His company aims to fill a vacuum in Africa, he said, –to power the gaming industry.

Tawia started creating superheroes as a child. “I was always trying to do a copy cat of Western superheroes,” he said.

Now he hires other artists to do the work, and he’s more interested in superheroes with African powers. His villains and superheroes combine ancient and modern-day fighters, great thinkers and jokers — fact-based and mythological characters such as Shaka Zulu, Anansi (based on a character from Ghanaian mythology who takes the form of a spider), greedy presidents and police officers.

“I read about Scandanavian mythology because I loved Thor in “The Avengers.'” Tawia said. “Real” people will stimulate interest and education, Tawia said. Kids will want to know more about the characters. “They can go read on Wiki about Shaka Zulu.”

Africans need superheroes, according to Tawia.

“Captain America was created in a time of war,” he said.  “People needed superheroes to cling to. We also want to do that. We want to see Batman giving a call to Anansi saying ‘Help me save the girls in Nigeria.'”