Elevating Cultural Diversity through Storytelling

Monde Twala

The African creative industry has grown in leaps and bounds, steadily evolving to embrace the various sub-sectors of entertainment that have shone forth with the passage of time. Undoubtedly, the African creative industry no longer needs any introduction to the global scene, with recent strides cementing Africa’s status as a continent that hosts a budding entertainment industry set to take the world by storm. However, reclining into the formative years of the continent’s entertainment industry, there have been several platforms that offered Africa a global audience. One of these platforms —and arguably the most significant— is Paramount Africa.

Every part of the African creative industry tells our story in its unique way. From the way we adorn our bodies with vibrant colours and designs that represent a tiny part of our culture, to the stories we tell through our songs and movies. All these outlets of expression have become a way of redefining the narratives about our culture, history and diversity. Therefore, across Paramount Africa’s brands —BET Africa, Comedy Central, MTV Base, Nickelodeon— telling the African story has assumed a more fruitful adventure for all involved.

Paramount Africa will continue to rest on the lips of many African creatives because the brand offers a platform that not only presents many artists and creatives with the opportunity to connect with the world, but also provides an ever-dynamic space that accommodates every creative seeking to bolster their path to success.

Speaking of bolstering successes, Paramount Africa began to propel the good news of African artistry almost two decades ago when it first aired Tuface’s ‘African Queen’ on its unique franchise —MTV Base. Before this period, African music was largely restricted to the continent’s bandwidth. However, MTV Base brought a unique dimension to African music in terms of global acceptance, as ‘African Queen’ reached over 1.3 million global audiences within hours of its broadcast. This ushered in the Afrobeats that the entire globe has come to know today.

Nearly two decades later, Paramount Africa has successfully aided the African music industry in penetrating the global market. But this has not only been the mainstay of Paramount Africa’s mission. The brand went on to forge a strategic partnership that birthed the Africa Creative Market (ACM), subsuming both the artists, hosts, Pan-African Culture Squad, fashion designers, makeover artists, and even the African storytellers. Indeed, the cultural diversity of the continent has been given a rewarding structure that caters to its need for expression, its need to tell the African story the African way.

First off, Paramount Africa has invested in upscaling the skills of various filmmakers on the continent. In South Africa, the brand partnered with the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Economic Development and the KZN Film Commission to hone the skills of greenhorns in filmmaking, eventually producing a TV series called ‘Seven Deadly Sins’.

Inclusivity remains at the core of the brand’s investment in the African creative industry, which is why it has vigorously pursued the sustenance of local content by showcasing edutainment and emotainment shows for all age groups, tribes and cultures. BET Africa, for instance, has launched several reality shows, dramas, and telenovelas, including Isono, Redemption, Black Tax, Have Faith, DJ Zinhle: The Unexpected, and many more.

BET Africa continues to drive attention towards black excellence and culture, with potential shows that sustain our diversity and culture in the pipeline. Comedy Central promotes African talents and comedians who are allowed a stage to showcase their talents, creating a general awareness of the vast array of talents that Africa inhabits.

This need to create awareness has also extended to various issues facing society as a whole. These are issues that need to be addressed in ways that resonate across a spectrum of people, be they young or old. This is why, in partnership with the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, Paramount Africa is launching new seasons of MTV Shuga Down South and MTV Shuga Naija. These African edutainment series discuss various reproductive and sexual health, mental health and societal topics that are often ignored in the continent’s societal space. They bring to fore the need for HIV testing as well as its prevention, and the fight against the stigmatisation and discrimination of people living with the disease. MTV has also produced documentaries that discuss gender-based violence across the continent.

With the MTV Base VJ search, the vision towards building meaningful impact in the creative industry was taken a step further by providing ample space for those whose strengths were neither in music nor drama. Launched on the continent in 2012, the search aimed to churn out talents that understand the dynamic nature of hosting audiences, offering an opportunity that could catapult these hosts into global stardom. Perhaps more importantly, this initiative birthed the Culture Squad, a team of visionaries, creatives and trendsetters who push the culture forward across the Paramount Africa’s youth brands MTV, MTV Base and BET Africa. As members of the Culture Squad, indigenous talents like Ehizojia ‘Ehiz’ Okoeguale, Stephanie Coker, Ada ‘Folu Storms’ Ogunkeye, amongst a host of other prominent VJs who have gone on to blaze a trail across the continent.

In terms of conversations, Paramount Africa recently carried out the Reflecting Me: Global Representation on Screen survey, which was an opportunity to reflect on the achievements so far, as well as recalibrate and re-strategise on the next chapter. This survey evaluated real-time opinions and thoughts of on-screen and off-screen representation, with Nigeria being a country of focus due to its status as one of Africa’s biggest social melting points. Insights gathered ranged from the North-Central, North-East, North-West, South-East, South-West and South-South parts of the country.

The study revealed that 94% of Nigerians perceived that there was an accurate depiction of the multicultural beliefs and values of the country on-screen, while 70% felt adjustments and improvements were necessary for the representation of cultures and values. On the other hand, 47% of respondents felt that representation of cultures was inadequate. These statistics all revealed that people now consider it necessary to mirror our cultural beliefs on a global stage for the world to see and learn about our roots.

For almost two decades, we have dedicated ourselves towards facilitating the growth of African creative content, as well as the ever-growing audience and acceptance of the continent’s talents and cultural diversity. This is because we realised, long before many, that the future of the music, film and television industry possesses immense potential for the creation of more content that is authentically African. Truly, this is only the beginning of Africa’s dominance in the entertainment industry and Paramount Africa will continue to be at the forefront of conversations and initiatives that scale the visibility and impact of indigenous storytelling. 

*Twala showcases Paramount Africa’s cultural and social impact in the creative industry.