The Nigerian Filmmaker Who Took African Stories to Disney

Tolu Olowofoyeku grew up fascinated by video games and animation, but rarely saw African creators or African stories represented in the digital worlds he loved.

Instead of accepting that absence, he decided to help change it.

Alongside his childhood friend Olufikayo Adeola and filmmaker Hamid Ibrahim, Olowofoyeku helped establish Kugali Media, a Lagos-based creative company focused on African comics, animation and games.

From a Childhood Dream to a Creative Company

Olowofoyeku had dreamed of creating video games from a young age. He wanted to see stories inspired by African life become part of the global entertainment industry.

Kugali began by giving African artists and storytellers a platform to develop their own work. The team gradually attracted attention for its ambition to build internationally recognised stories rooted in African culture.

In 2018, the founders appeared in a BBC interview in which they boldly talked about challenging Disney’s position in Africa.

Then Disney Came Calling

The interview unexpectedly helped put Kugali on Disney’s radar.

The two companies eventually began working together on Iwájú, an animated series created by African filmmakers and set in a futuristic Lagos.

For Olowofoyeku, the project represented an opportunity to make sure the details of Nigerian life were reflected accurately rather than simply interpreted from outside the country.

He worked as the project’s cultural consultant, helping the production team understand everything from everyday language and customs to small visual details that could make the fictional Lagos feel authentic.

Putting African Creators at the Centre

Iwájú became an Emmy-nominated series and marked a major collaboration between Disney Animation and an African-owned creative company.

Kugali’s founders hope the project will encourage more African artists to believe they can create stories for audiences around the world without leaving their cultural identity behind.

Olowofoyeku says the goal was never simply to make one successful series. He wanted to help create more opportunities for African storytellers in an industry where they had often been underrepresented.

A Different Kind of Success

The journey from a young Nigerian who rarely saw himself represented in the games he played to a filmmaker working with one of the world’s biggest animation companies took years of persistence.

For Olowofoyeku and his colleagues, the experience has demonstrated that African stories can reach a global audience while remaining closely connected to the people and places that inspired them.

And their ambitions extend beyond one project. Kugali continues to promote African storytelling, with the hope that more creators from the continent will eventually have the opportunity to tell their own stories to the world.

Sources

• BBC World Service — “The Nigerian film-maker who took on Disney and made history”
• Kugali Media — Official information about Iwájú
• Walt Disney Animation Studios — Iwájú project information