Actor, writer, and filmmaker Adeoye Lojede has launched ‘The Afrotods’, a new children’s book and multimedia project designed to give African and diaspora kids fresh, modern content rooted in identity, values, and culture.
Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, the author explained the inspiration behind the project, the creative challenges, the audience he intends to reach, and why ‘The Afrotods’ will eventually expand into animation, apps, and other digital platforms.
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Afrotods
The Afrotods explores the lifestyle of inhabitants of Afroville, a beautiful world filled with Afro-modern motifs, history, culture, music, and fun, and it’s sold for 10 pounds per unit.
It follows the exciting, everyday adventures of this family of Afrotods, teaching kids in Africa and the diaspora about African culture and history.
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Speaking about the inspiration behind the project, the book’s author explained that parenthood opened his eyes to a gap in children’s entertainment, which collided with his long-standing Pan-African values.
“The minute I had kids, I realised that I don’t have anything online or any of my works that my children can watch. I’m either playing a killer. They were not obliged to watch anything I had created.
“One of the key things that I see is that our children, black kids generally, there’s no content out there for them that talks to them, there’s almost a caricature-ness in some of the content targeting black kids,” he explained.
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Child-focus
Mr Lojede said he aimed to create something modern, relatable, and culturally subtle, rather than preachy. He stated that he studied his own children for years to understand how they consume media.
“It took me at least two or three years just observing them and asking them questions. I decided I wanted to do something subtle that could compete with your Peppa Pig and all these other brands, but with a certain amount of our own value.”
He emphasised that ‘The Afrotods’ is less about traditional Africa and more about modern African identity across the diaspora, but with universal values in the kids.
“Afrotods or Afrogirl is not necessarily about Africa in the true sense of the word. The universal value is respect for yourself, respect for others, respect for your culture, respect for your identity.
“It’s about anybody with African origin, whether you’re Jamaican, African American, the idea is for any child that lays claim to some form of African identity to be able to see themselves,” the author explained.
Mr Lojede also highlighted how African children today live in hyper-modern, digital environments and deserve content that reflects that reality. He argued that even subtle representation and value-shaping matters in how kids see themselves and the world.
“Our kids are modern children. They watch all the foreign stuff, but at the same time, there’s nothing like talking to them. That subliminal message is so powerful. We never had to learn our culture; now we have to teach our kids the culture,” he said.
Challenges
On challenges, Mr Lojede said the first major hurdle was character design, saying, “The first complication I had was getting the right person. I moved between three or four people before I could arrive at the kind of imagery I wanted.”
“We tested with a lot of parents in the diaspora. The diaspora is quite a key market for us; the future of Africa, in the geopolitical sense, is really going to rest heavily on the African diaspora,” he added.
He argued that African children abroad need content that grounds them culturally, just as other communities preserve their identity overseas.
Character illustrations
Addressing a question about the characters being shaped like miniature maps of Africa, and the implications of readers’ understanding, Mr Lojede said the decision was intentional and symbolic.
“When I say what we’re trying to do is subliminal messaging, your average child actually doesn’t know that it is the map of Africa. If you were to take the Peppa Pig illustration, you know it’s completely off. But over time, nobody complains. So for us, the Afro-shaped characters are part of that subliminal point of view.”
Platforms
The filmmaker also spoke about the platforms and formats the project will expand into. He revealed that the book is digitised and available in functions like an animated e-book for download. He added that versions in French and indigenous African languages are underway.
“We have it as an animation. We have a YouTube channel. We’re also developing an app. We’ve done the English version. We’re going to do the French version. The aim is for us to be able to have an indigenous language version.”
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Moreso, Mr Lojede revealed that the long-term vision is expansive, moving from non-human cartoon characters to full human storytelling. He, however, noted that the children can look forward to humour, games, and historical fun facts from the Afrotods.
“Think of it like a nursery school, we’re going to build a primary, we’re going to develop a secondary, and we’re going to make a university with more elevated literature.
“It’s the fun dynamic between siblings and their pets. On our YouTube page, we have something called ‘Did You Know?’ animation, giving them fun Afrocentric facts about black history,” he concluded.
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