Global domination: The rise and rise of South Africa's storytellers

The culture of a country can define the character of a decade. When Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered in in 1922 in Egypt, the ensuing “Tutmania” influenced the way people around the world dressed, created art and designed their spaces. A few decades later London defined the style of the Swinging 60s.  This “youthquake" made way for the stars of Britain to influence interiors, fashion and films of the time. 

  Lately, the interest in  South Korea - Korean dramas became popular in 2010 and helped hype the success of K-pop that popularised later Korean productions like the film Parasite, which won Best Picture at the 2020 Academy Awards. The series Squid Games made history as the first foreign-language drama to win top honors at the television industry’s Emmy Awards.

 Hopefully South African productions will also enjoy this flavour-of-the-month status.  Our music already  influences dance styles on TikTok thanks to the infectious spirit and beat of the Amapiano genre. Fashion designers Thebe Magugu and Sindiso Khumalo have captured the attention of international fashion houses inspired by the African continent. Our famous exports also include actor Troye Sivan and comedian Trevor Noah, who've become household names..

Nothing is stopping South African productions from becoming the next big thing on the global stage.

For film director, writer and actor Akin Amotoso SA is up there with the best of international shows and movies. Amotoso was recently honoured with the Cinema Legends award at the Africa Rising Film Festival (ARIFF) where he was celebrated for bringing authentic African stories to life.

Omotoso comes from a family of  raconteurs and story tellers — his father and sister are both published authors. By the age of 12, he was building imaginary worlds, some of them around the folk tales he grew up with. These would be the inspiration behind   popular South African small-screen superheroes in the Netflix series The Brave Ones.

Winning awards like ARIFF spurs Omotoso to tell stories about  the continent. 

“The halftime acts at the [recent NBA All Stars Weekend] were all Africans [three Nigerian artists — Grammy-winning singer, songwriter and producer Burna Boy, Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated singer Tems and rapper Rema — doing an Afrobeats-themed performance].  Africans are at the centre of popular culture at the moment and should continue spreading the word.”

But, he insists, one has to be continually diligent in pruning one's craft.

“People working on their craft continue to excel because the work comes from the heart.  When you speak of Amapiano music, it can only come from one place, here, and we’ve already seen what it means to the world.”

Currently top of the ratings  in South Africa are soapies and telenovelas. While they allow the industry to grow through long story arcs loved by industry folk for job creation, they have formulaic storylines and reductive tropes that don’t expand the lived experiences of South Africans.

“You need to have a 360-degree view of the content. You can’t go to one place for everything,” he says. “There should to be room for a kaleidoscope of stories.

As more streaming services create audiences in the country, Omotoso hopes it will allow more creatives in South Africa’s entertainment industry to tell their stories.