The ascent of African animation
- Samantha Herbst
With growing global attention, SA’s local studios are redefining ownership, asserting creative agency and keeping intellectual property.
With competitive skill sets, affordable rates, positive labour laws, English proficiency and a favourable time zone, upskilled South Africans are an attractive commodity for many international corporations and well-positioned to attract outsourced work. This is true across multiple industries, including South African animation, which is gaining global critical acclaim and recognition.
Local studios like Triggerfish and Mind’s Eye Creative, for example, have landed major projects for platforms such as Netflix, Disney+ and Nickelodeon, while other homegrowns, including Luma, Sunrise Studios and Chocolate Tribe, are winning awards and making waves in 3D animation, religious content, advertising and visual effects.
“Studios are finding their niche and landing international client work. As an industry, we’re still developing but we’re much larger than we used to be and we’re growing steadily,” says Rachel van Rooyen, a PhD student and Lecturer in Animation in Wits Digital Arts.
In a collaboration between the Games, Artificial Intelligence and Culture (GAIC) Lab and Digital Arts, van Rooyen’s research explores how South African animators navigate cultural and socioeconomic challenges - while asserting creative and economic agency globally.
Acknowledging nuance
Certain narratives peg South African animation and international outsourcing as a generally positive move for the industry, but many detractors find the outsourced product to be “culturally odourless”. The discourse around African animation remains problematic and it’s this tension that van Rooyen challenges in her doctoral research.
“Our animation is sometimes deemed not ‘native’ enough, while international audiences might see it as ‘strange’ or outside the norm. It’s a colonialist lens – expecting our work to be sanitised for an international audience,” says van Rooyen.
However, amidst these polarities, van Rooyen says that neither viewpoint reflects the nuanced reality of local animation.
“South Africans are used to multicultural perspectives and that’s reflected in what we produce. It’s culturally positive and pluralist. We need to shift how we talk about this in animation studies.”
Bypassing barriers
Van Rooyen’s research also highlights how local studios are navigating obstacles and building sustainable models. Studios like Rams Comics and Cabblow Studios have embraced the rise of internet-based platforms, bypassing traditional distribution barriers by engaging directly with their audiences.
Rams Comics’ business model leverages the distribution power of large clients, who pay them a licensing fee, allowing Rams to retain their intellectual property rights. Cabblow Studios, led by a mother-daughter team, subverted the rules of traditional marketing to generate a buzz about their show even before it aired. They sold merchandise and created a social media presence, which secured funding and ensured that the team retained ownership of their product.
Van Rooyen concludes that while finding a voice on the global stage might mean relinquishing ownership and IP to international corporations, disruptors in local animation are bypassing these types of industry barriers.
Power Surge in African Digital Arts
Wits University’s Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct helps entrepreneurs and SMMEs thrive in creative industries like animation, gaming, VR/AR/XR and makerspaces.
With programmes like the Digital Skills Academy and the Mollo Animation Academy – an 11-month paid internship for graduates and self-taught artists - the hub supports marginalised youth and cultivates digital careers.
Tshimologong hosts the Fak’ugesi Digital Innovation Festival, an annual celebration of art, culture, technology and their many intersectionalities.
This year’s theme is Power Surge, spotlighting Africa’s creative and economic resilience.
“Africa isn’t waiting to catch up. We are charging ahead,” says Fak’ugesi’s Festival Director Alby Michaels. “Even as global markets slow down, Africa saw over R64-billion invested in startups in 2024 - especially in financial innovation, climate technology and creative industries.”
The 2025 Fakugesi Festival will pull together five key pillars: AI, Sustainability, Climate Justice, Creative Infrastructure and Economic Justice. The goal is to unite the vast capabilities of our country’s creative workforce in these fields and to share knowledge and ideas on how to adapt, innovate and thrive in a fast-paced digital economy.
The 2025 Fak’ugesi Festival runs from 9 to 12 October at Tshimologong and at Wits University.
- Samantha Herbst is a freelance writer.
- This article first appeared in?Curiosity,?a research magazine produced by?Wits Communications?and the?Research Office.
- Read more in the 19th issue, themed #Disruption, which explores the crises, tech, research, and people shaking up our world in 2025.