New Disney+ series Kizazi Moto presents 10 visionary tales of Africa’s future drawn from its ancient past. Produced by Cape Town-based animation studio Triggerfish, each episode comes from African creators. South Africans Catherine Green and Nthato Mokgata are the writers/directors of the episode ‘Surf Sangoma’. Green is a creative researcher at Romance films while Mokgata is a multi-disciplinary artist well known for his music under the stage name Spoek Mathambo. “It’s an amazing initiative. There hasn’t been something that has showcased African animation in this way before,” says Green, with Mokgata adding that it centres “African voices, sensibilities, humour, narrative styles and mythological lineages.”

This is the duo’s first collaboration and foray into animation. They worked closely with co-director Graham Gallagher (Guardians of the Galaxy) and received mentorship from Oscar-winning executive producer Peter Ramsey (“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) and animator Sidney Kintombo (Avengers) to help bring their episode to fruition. Set in 2050, it tells the story of Njabulo and Mqobi, best friends and avid surfers living in Durban. Due to environmental devastation, all ocean activities are banned and cordoned off by a huge wall. The boys are desperate to return to their passion on the other side, even if it means entanglement with a local gang and the use of radioactive octopi to help them survive the colossal swells. Yet danger lurks deeper, and Njabulo will need to confront personal trauma in order to save his friend - and his own destiny on the waves.

‘Sangoma’ refers to an ancestral storyline which forms the backbone of their short. “In Nguni culture, water is seen as a potent symbol of power and rebirth. It is a liminal space, the site of ancestral knowledge,” Green explains. Njabulo must accept the calling of the Sangoma [healer] and pass through the living water if he is to find transcendence and accept his gift. There is a darker association too. The radioactive octopi in this dystopian world serve as a metaphor for Nyaope, a drug highly prevalent in Durban that decimates communities. Overcoming addiction forms another core theme of their episode.

While imagining an African future, Mokgata is clear that ‘Surf Sangoma’ is far removed from Afro-futurism. This is no utopic Wakanda. “Afrofuturism offers narratives that people in the diaspora are telling because of their disconnection from Africa. What you’ll see in our film is a very thin veneer of the future but our work is grounded in reality. It’s trying to show you what Durban youth and street culture is about,” he says.

Durban - and specifically the township of Umlazi - is the birthplace of GQOM. “We wanted to pay tribute,” Mokgata affirms. As such, South African music producer Aero Manyelo created the GQOM-inspired tracks which infuse “so much local sonic texture to the film”. Kojo “Lion” Dodoo contributed traditional percussion for the ancestral scenes and Pierre-Henri Wicomb is responsible for the orchestral and instrumental composition. Drone and noise elements served to “intensify the heebie jeebies” and joins the full tapestry of sound brought together by Mokgata.

“It was a challenge to do something ‘authentic’ because we were working with an international team and a lot of white South Africans who were totally disconnected to Black South Africa but that’s the culture we are trying to represent,” he adds. “The global perspective is very different. Our spiritual worldview and where we see ourselves in the universe relative to others is just different.”

Perhaps it is for this reason that Kizazi Moto feels so ground-breaking. “For creators on the continent, it’s a massive thing to look at and aspire to. It’s exciting,” says Green, who also points out that the series will serve as a benchmark. “A lot of directors who started in animation were going from a Eurocentric perspective. It’s really great for younger people to see an alternative and something that they can connect to.”

Kizazi Moto is screening now on Disney+