In Their eyes We Looked like Grasshoppers

 WE are so Great as Africans no wonder someone has spent all their energies to convince us that we are nothing. Unfortunately, we have believed the lie and we have become our own destructors

2024! CALLING on Willing Animators to join me in telling the story of the Resilience of our GREAT African ancestors through animated movies.

Growing up as a Kid, I always wanted to tell stories using cartoons but, back in my days, this was not an easy cup of tea to undertake. I used to make cutouts from packaging boxes to make human images and begin to show other kids of my age in a kind of Muppet Show behind a shadow and lighting up the images with Candlelight. Those of my age who grew up in the '70s and '80s can relate to my experience I enjoyed creating conversations in an imaginary story. I love animated stories and I have always looked forward to a time when by God’s grace I can finally tell the African story through a unique animated Africa series.

I know many of the old-school complaints are that technology has replaced our culture as our children spend most of their time watching Western-style cartoons. We tend to paint technology the darkest black and accuse it of the moral decay we are seeing today. But Technology is the river with a very fast-moving current and everything is being swept in it's current. Well, technology is a river we cannot do anything about. It’s here to stay. Let’s however, learn from the wisdom of the river. Whenever one is caught up in a fast-moving river and wants to survive the current, one should not try to swim against the current but must move along with the river’s flow direction and the chances of survival are high. Therefore, instead of blaming technology for the eroded culture and building a generation that believes that everything from the West is supreme and as a consequence regard even their own dark skin as inferior. Let’s use the same technology to flip the narrative to tell our own stories about who we are as Africans. Let’s use technology to tell the story of how the Bantu-speaking people traveled all the way, whether from West Africa or the mountains of Cameroon, without navigation systems, without proper clothing, braved the harshest weather conditions, crossing the most dangerous terrains until they found themselves in a country like Zambia and many other countries. Let’s use technology to tell the story of how the great Ngoni People crossed the Zambezi without a bridge, and how the great Tonga-speaking people started smelting Iron before any mining and metallurgy textbooks were written (Wow!). How the resilience of the great Barotse Kingdom management system still shines as an example of unity and development without referring to any management textbook (Wow!). Let’s tell the intriguing story of how the Luba people from Kola (Angola) during their journey got baptized in the Luapula River and emerged on the other side as the great Bemba people of modern-day Zambia. Only great, Intelligent, Wise, and creative people could manage to pull it off. We are truly descendants of greatness and we don’t know it at all.

Let’s use the same technology medium we accuse of distorting our African story to flip the narrative and let our children learn the greatness, creativity, and wisdom of our ancestors to have survived such that we are here without realizing what they overcame to afford us this opportunity of life. Come and join me to create the biggest animated story of our true identity.   

I would be more than glad to join hands with you (inbox if interested or email brightmulenga@gmail.com)

As the saying goes “Successful people never Reach their Goals Alone”