Nigerian Animation: Mark of Uru

With a budget of less than $5,000 dollars a small production studio in Nigeria, TransTales Entertainment has recently gained international attention for their animation titles. The titles produced by Segun Williams and Obinna Onwuekwe claimed the United Nations World Summit Award for the use of technology to promote African culture.


“Mark of Uru” is written and directed by Obinna Owuekwe and produced by Segun Williams. Owuekwe also lends his voice to two of the characters: The Warrior and Isi Agu. The costumes and makeup are authentically African and the series has a woman empowerment theme embedded in it. The voices also feature varied accents, mostly Igbo and Efik from West Africa.
According to TransTales, very few countries rival the diversity of Nigeria across the world; with 250 ethnic groups, 500 languages and a population of over 160 million. “Such diversity brings with it unique experiences and stories that need telling. While Nigerians have explored film, music, arts and literature to tell their stories, animation has been absent; but this is about to change.”


Mark of Uru has certainly gained some ground for the African animation industry, yet there have been criticism regarding general quality in the industry as a whole. Many animation studios in Africa are generally understaffed, suffer from lack technology infrastructure as well education on core animation techniques, however African animators are not afraid to rise up to these challenges.

As a Nigerian animator and founder of a small studio, I have been following Grafikdon’s work for years. I can see both sides. As a consumer you want to see something that is as good as Pixar’s offerings and feel cheated if you don’t. As an animator trying to produce genuine African based (in its broadest sense) animations and facing challenges, just finishing a piece is a triumph. But it is important to note where the greats started from. If you watched the pilot episode of the Simpsons now you’d be shocked at how different it looked to the later episodes. Also as in the case of Nollywood, certain viewers are willing to forgive certain technical deficiencies to watch content they can relate to or that speaks to them. It’s an interesting time and there are a lot of animators working hard in Sub Saharan Africa despite challenges. In about 4 years I feel the media landscape will be different.
Adamu Waziri – Nigerian Animator