Netflix has acquired rights to stream Mama K’s Team 4. An animation series set in a futuristic Lusaka, the story chronicles the exploits of four teenage spies. Mama K, a retired spy herself, recruits these four girls to save the world from all kinds of villains and disasters.

Mama K’s Team 4 was conceived of by Zambian writer Malenga Mulendema. Back in 2015, it won one of Triggerfish’s creative initiatives and Cape-town based Cameroonian animator, Malcolm Wope, came on board to handle character creation. 

Triggerfish Animation Studios, which is based in Cape Town, and London-based media company Cake are currently working with Netflix to get the project off the ground.

This is such exciting news. African children get to see their world represented in an empowering and positive light, and children from around the globe get to be inspired by an all-female cast of African characters doing super-hero things on the streets and neighborhoods of a futuristic African city.

Mulendema is excited about her story gaining global visibility. She writes: “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.”

Like all the other African media content picked up by Netflix in the last couple of years, Mama K’s Team 4 will be served up on Netflix’s global menu and give viewers around the world a taste of the power of African storytelling.

Animation storytelling is targeted towards children and, as a result, carries positive and aspirational messages. As Melissa Cobb, Netflix’s vice president of original animation, puts it: “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.”

This acquisition is part of Netflix’s commitment to give African viewers local choices, while giving global visibility to African filmmakers.

Exciting news for lovers of Africa stories! Congrats to Mulendema and Triggerfish for landing such a game-changing deal.