Meet Ziki Nelson Founder of Kugali
Q1.What is your project about?
Ziki Nelson: Kugali is a celebration of African culture. The Kugali anthology brings together the work of some of the best African artists to showcase fantastical and mythical stories from the continent. Q2.Where did the original idea stem from?
Ziki Nelson : Of course I’ve always loved comics but as a kid I really struggled to find any comics with African settings or any characters that I felt represented by. Kugali is the answer to this, collecting awesome stories centred around African culture.
Q3. What challenges have you experienced in your journey so far?
Ziki Nelson: Content: The African comic and animation industry is still in its infancy therefore content creations and acquisition has been a real challenge. In the west, comic publishers and animations studios are putting out hundreds (maybe thousands) of incredible stories and the same is true in the east. Even today, there are only a handful of African comics that match up to either their easter or western counterparts and perhaps 2 or 3 films. Ultimately Kugali is trying to emulate platforms like Comixology and even Netflix but in order to do this we need quality content, lots of it.
Q4. What is that you are trying to achieve by the end of the year?
Ziki Nelson: Earlier this year we had a Kickstarter campaign aimed at raising funds to produce our comic anthology. The Kickstarter was successful so we're working towards completing the anthology and delivering it to our Kickstarter backers. Afterward we hope to build on this momentum and release another comic anthology in November 2018. We've also set up an animation wing called Kugali Imagination where we're working on a number of animated projects and also experimenting with Augmented Reality. We expect to release our first animated short film in December 2018.
Q5. What do you want the legacy of your project to be known for?
Ziki Nelson: First and foremost the stories, we want to create narratives and characters that fans will fall in love with emulating the likes of Disney or Studio Ghibli. However, beyond becoming a world class storytelling company we want to give Africans an opportunity to connect with their culture and non Africans an opportunity to immerse themselves in the African experience. I often think of how the manga and anime industry has created a cultural phenomenon drawing fans from across the world and we want to achieve that same effect. Q6. Where can people find you?
Website: http://kugali.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kugalimedia/?hl=en Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/kugalimedia/boards/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kugalimedia