African Animation: Ancient to Modern

The animation industry is worth $500 billion annually but we can trace its roots back to the Motherland. Hollywood films are known for ripping off African culture and whitewashing history but less well known is the exploitation of Black culture and iconography in the animation industry.In this interactive presentation we will cover:

• African cultural practice before European arrival. The role of the Story
• What is a Griot ? Their role and purpose
• Trans- Atlantic transmission of culture as resistance
• Jim Crow and the roots of hyper violence in cartoons
• Walt Disney and his racism.
• Hollywood cultural appropriation of African content. Greeks and Romans
• Maintaining your culture while under oppression
• The Caribbean powerhouses of animation
• 7 Black owned animation/comics studios that are shaking up the industry by telling authentic African stories with Black characters

This presentation will be jointly delivered by ‘The Investigator’ Andrew Muhammad and Black History Walks as an online event via Zoom. Link will be sent one hour before the start.

‘The Investigator’ is one of the United Kingdom’s leading Black History and Culture Specialists. His lively energetic presentations are designed to bring forth history and culture to the spectator allowing for a more enriched awareness of the universal contributions and achievements of a culturally diverse society.

Watch out for Black History Walks new book ‘Black History Walks in London, Volume 1 published by Jacaranda Books in October 2020

Other coming events:

• Caribbean (In)Visibility on British TV
• Planet of the Apes Movie Breakdown: real and imagined history
• HAPI online premiere of new film on ancient civilisations and economic empowerment
• Titian, Sex, Race and Murder
• Race Riots and the Black British Intelligentsia
• Inter-generational trauma in the age of Coronavirus: Haiti and Louisiana
• Hip Hop to Opera via Negro Spirituals
• Image of the Black in the National Gallery
• Beyond Nollywood, the new Nigerian cinema
• Rembrandt’s Blacks
• The African Crown: Hair, Politics and US Civil Rights
• African American leisure sites and the Jim Crow era