Accomplished actor, writer and filmmaker, Fabia Adeoye Lojede has opened up on his new project, Afrotods, saying the need to talk to children in the way and manner they are used to without preaching necessitated the decision to create Afrotods.
In a recent chat, Lojede expressed that it took a while observing his kids and their friends to develop and come up with Afrotods.
He also expressed the need to teach Africans in diaspora the values and culture of the African people.
“The minute I had kids, I realised that I don’t have anything online or any of my works that my children can watch. I’m either playing a killer. They were not obliged to watch anything I had created. One of the key things that I see is that our children, black kids generally, there’s no content out there for them that talks to them, there’s almost a caricature-ness in some of the content targeting black kids,” he began.
Speaking elaborately, he said, “We never had to learn our culture, we imbibed it but now we have to teach our children our culture. With Afrotods, we aren’t forcing the culture but we are reaching the kids in a very subtle way and making them imbibe some of the values in us, which include respect everyone, respect yourself, respect the elders. In Afrotods, we have created Afrohood, which is fictional. Afrotods is about everyone with African origin, so whether you are Jamaica, African America, as far as your descent can be traced to Africa, in the sense of value and culture. We have it as animation, we have it on YouTube channel, we have been able to get it across to more people and will be available for people to download. We have done the English, we would be doing the French and later the indigenous languages. I wish more people spoke in their mother tongues,” Lojede said.
Read Also: Fabian Lojede launches film funding platform, Prodculator
Lojede further explained that he hopes to fill a long-standing gap in children’s entertainment by creating Afro-modern stories kids can see themselves in using books, animation, and future digital platforms.
‘The Afrotods,’ Olojede’s recent project is a new children’s book and multimedia project designed to give African and diaspora kids fresh, modern content rooted in identity, values, and culture.
He went further to explain the creative challenges, the audience he intends to reach, and why ‘The Afrotods’ will eventually expand into animation, apps, and other digital platforms.
Diving into the project, he explained that the Afrotods explores the lifestyle of inhabitants of Afroville, a beautiful world filled with Afro-modern motifs, history, culture, music, and fun, and it’s sold for 10 pounds per unit.
