Lights, Camera, Animation!

South Africa’s emerging animation industry has a new star in creative entrepreneur Lwazi Msipha, who has just debuted a first-of-its-kind African cartoon show on a global network.

- KAREN MWENDERA

IMAGINE IF YOU COULD DRAW AND CREATE your own friends. Self-taught South African animator, Lwazi Msipha, did exactly that, in the process, making himself several friends around the world.

The 27-year-old is the owner and creative director of Old Fashioned Youngin, and the animator behind My Cartoon Friend, a South African cartoon that debuted this year on American cable television’s Cartoon Network.

“I used to love watching the channel growing up. And I always wanted to be on the credits. But now seeing a show that I created [on there] is definitely one of my proudest moments,” Msipha tells FORBES AFRICA.

From Boksburg, on the East Rand of South Africa’s Gauteng province, Msipha grew up inspired by the shows on Cartoon Network such as Courage the Cowardly Dog and Dragon Ball Z on local channel SABC.

Early on, these influenced him to want to pursue animation – a profession unheard of back in the day – and he laid out the initial blueprint for his career, by drawing cartoons using flipbook animations.

“I love seeing my characters come to life. And that was the spark for me. I was like, ‘this is what I want to do, I want to create, I want to see my animations’,” says Msipha.

With support from his mother who encouraged him to pursue the art form, he was able to give shape and form to his dreams after graduating in 2017. He started out as a graphic designer but quit as he wanted to venture into animation full-time.