Dennis “Kidd” Banda, the COO of the Zambian otaku community NerdOtaku, recently published an article on Anime News Network explaining the growing popularity of anime, cosplay, and videogaming in the East African country, located just north of Zimbabwe. The article articulates the quickly growing fan community, citing access to Netflix as the main provider since region-locking often means that other legitimate anime sources are unavailable. The article also includes a synopsis and clip of “Scuna Girl,” a Zambian horror anime that reimagines a local urban legend. 

News of the Zambian community is spreading across US American anime circles. We can hope that the Zambian NerdOtaku community continues to thrive and more African anime communities gain awareness on the international scene. 

Sources/Read More:

• Dennis Banda’s article on Anime News Network: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2020-07-15/a-growing-anime-fandom-in-zambia/.160984  
• Zimbabwe’s NerdOtaku website: https://www.nerdotaku.org/
• “Scuna Girl” episode 1 on Youtube, courtesy of Tsubasa Studios https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLgG1a5gBVw&ab_channel=TsubasaAnimations 
• Brian Mishler’s article on the blog of J1Con: http://www.j1studios.com/?p=27317&fbclid=IwAR3-4hgPD8uAldb8vZ-3_1sT5drlOKsuKIwSGMcc3RetDoSga4JAfS0JRsM