How we roll in The Gambia. A detailed view of a PC project.

The challenge.

As The Gambia moves to a universal education system, one of the principal challenges will be access to quality educational resources. In schools and at home there are few materials that allow students to read, study or practice what they are taught in schools. Furthermore, once a citizen has graduated from school their access to educational resources drops drastically. This scarcity of resources both during and after formal education obstructs Gambian citizens from exploring their intellectual curiosity, part of the groundwork needed in a democratic society.

The Anansi the Spider Animation Project hopes to address this problem at a foundational level providing a fun and engaging way to enhance reading, writing, and communication skills. The project will create a series of short (~15 minutes in length) animated cartoons that will tell African folktales in simple, clear and comprehensible language. To aid with English reading and comprehension the cartoons will also further explain difficult words, ideas or passages in local languages that range from Pulaar, Mandinka, Joola, and Wolof. The project will distribute the shorts through television, harnessing the power of mass media to cheaply and effectively transmit the educational resource to Gambian society.

The project also aims to unite mass media and Gambian society on a culturally relevant level not often seen in this part of the world. Creating the animated shorts that centre around the African folktale character of Anansi the spider, the project will reach out by beginning with a thematic and visual template already familiar to Gambians. The focus on locally produced and culturally relevant material greatly expands the project's potential impact in The Gambia, further developing national identity, history and pride.

To accomplish these goals the project will utilize a team of computer literate members of The Gambia YMCA to write, storyboard, animate, perform and edit the animated shorts. The YMCA currently trains a large number of students in computer literacy and media skills providing the foundation for many of the tasks that will be required to produce the animations. Most importantly, the project will be a creative outlet for many young Gambians who do not otherwise have the opportunity to use mass media to communicate their ideas out to the general public. In this way the project offers many of the team members inspiration and goals for a future in media communications.

The Goals.

1. To provide widely accessible quality educational resources for The Gambian, with a specific focus on English literacy.

2. To inspire other Gambia media producers to utilize mass media as a tool for the betterment of a democratic society.

3. To provide a creative outlet for young Gambians who are media and computer literate.

4. To combine modern animation techniques with local history and culture demonstrating to Gambian society the potential creativity and impact that are available in the world job market.

Where we are now.

The project is still in its infancy and most of the work being done is admittedly in the "proof of concept" phase. What has been done so far is promising and will provide a solid background to build off of.

Most importantly is that there is a lot of enthusiasm for the project. The team members are currently bringing up new cultural ideas, thoughts and directions that they think the project could go in. Particularly impressive has been the writing section that includes talented individuals who are meticulous in making sure that words are clear and communicate well in the local climate.

Audio recording and performances of scripts has gone well and there is a lot of interest in being voice talent. If the animations should fail, there is a lot of optimism that we will be able to turn the project into short radio dramas. In a way this does make more sense since everyone here has a radio, but few have television. One of our biggest challenges in final productions will be obtaining copies of license free sound effects and music which will run about USD $800. Anyone who has ever used pre-recorded material along with their own effects knows the benefits and ease of having a large library to choose from. There are currently a couple of funding proposals being written, from which some of this text was copied.

The animations are in their early phases as well and we are working on an overall art direction for the project. Since many of us are new to animation we are focusing more on creative, colourful, and exciting images rather than fully-fledged smooth animation. If you think of the kind of animation common to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, that is probably what we will shoot for. Working to our favour, there are zero locally made cartoons and there are not any live or taped PBS Kids style educational programs. In any business you must know the market and for us the competition is non-existent.

What next?

Plug ahead with our "proof of concept," that is: Create a few shorts, test them with the public, and then see how we can better improve the project. There are a lot of elements that need to be thought out, but most of all is formalize the creative art direction and style that we want to follow. As it is now it seems that the stories will be of a humorous nature, often putting the characters in dangerous Looney Toons style situations where people can fall off cliffs, fall into fires, or be blown up by ACME TNT without dying.

As far as art direction is concerned that is a hot topic. One of my ideas is to utilize the palate that the children's' toy "Colorforms" used. For those who do not have a mental image of that, think of black backgrounds, with coloured geometric shapes put together in interesting ways to create the desired picture. With this template we could then invite Gambians to cut out and colour their own pieces retelling their own Anansi stories at home.

As a whole the possibilities are truly endless, and if this is my only project that succeeds, I will be overjoyed.

- - -

- - -

A moment.

The world had since put on tinted glasses. Life spoke to me in tones of dirt brown, rusted red, and Islamic green. The vivid point came up so quickly I almost missed it in the blur of the windowpane. When I did see the colors they popped out and held my gaze like tempting whispers from an unknown love. Exposed in the middle of the African dust and sand stood a solitary shrub speckled with bright pink flowers. Their brilliance was one of contrasts, bursting out their color on a world that had since gone sterile to my eyes.

The world is always full of color, you just need to make sure your eyes are adjusted. This Christmas please do not forget to fill in your own colors of friendship, family and caring for each other.