Netflix , the world’s leading internet entertainment service, is adding to its catalogue of original African content as it picks up an animated series, Mama K’s Team 4, an animated series featuring an all-girl team of spies who happen to be four regular Zambian teens.
Mama K, a retired secret agent who is interested in saving the world, recruits four teenagers who come to the rescue when needed- A daunting task that requires navigating downtown traffic in a futuristic Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city.
Created by Malenga Mulendema, a Zambian Writer who was inspired by cartoons she watched as a child, the animation script won a Pan-African talent search in 2015.
Mulendema, one of the eight winners that year will see her story run as an animated series on Netflix.
Speaking on the series, Malenga says, “In creating a superhero show set in Lusaka, I hope to introduce the world to four strong African girls who save the day in their own fun and crazy way. Most importantly, I want to illustrate that anyone from anywhere can be a superhero.”
Cameroonian animator, Malcolm Wope, created the four characters and the futuristic world, in which they will be situated.
Vice President of original animation at Netflix, Melissa Cobb, says “In addition to giving African writers a global platform on which to be heard, we are excited to present this powerful and entertaining new animated series that brings Malenga’s incredible and unique vision to life on Netflix. “Mama K’s Team 4 has the potential to give a whole new generation of African children the opportunity to see themselves on-screen in the powerful, aspirational characters they look up to”. Netflix is in collaboration with South African animation studio, Triggerfish and Cake to find African female writers to write for Mama K’s Team 4. The writers are expected to be fiction writers who have produced for either TV, film, or theatre.