Music-led kids’ series Kunda and Friends to premiere on 29 May

Kunda & Friends is a 3D animation for children set in Africa that takes preschoolers on a fun and adventurous ride.

Each episode is designed to enhance children’s learning and discovery experience through refreshing, stimulating storytelling soundtracked by music from the continent including popular genres like Afrobeats and amapiano.

The show also aims to give Black and multi-racial characters more representation in children's media as the audience gets to interact with Kunda, a four-year-old boy of mixed African heritage. His friends are Sana, a girl of mixed African and Indian heritage and Fela, a boy from Nigeria, as well Leo the lion and Ella the elephant.

“Our children deserve to learn more about Africa’s rich and diverse heritage, and it is our ambition to provide quality stories in various formats to children around the world,” Kunda & Friends co-creator Louisa Olafuyi said.

“It is essential for children to see themselves and others represented in world-class stories and content. By nurturing a sense of pride and belonging, we empower them to grow up as confident, culturally-aware individuals who will shape the future.”

The show is anchored on friendship and imparts prosocial life lessons, providing parents and educators with an opportunity to teach and play with their children.

The first four episodes will be available on 29 May on the Kunda & Friends YouTube channel with subsequent episodes to follow in the coming weeks.

This launch comes a few months after the company closed its $700 000 pre-seed funding round that will be utilised to improve the Kunda Kids mobile app and increase collaboration with creatives from across Africa and the diaspora.

“Kunda & Friends is an opportunity to impact not only the younger generation of kids from all over the world but the lives of artists longing to work on larger scale productions,” series director Raymond Malinga said. “This milestone allows us to launch Kunda & Friends and invest in the exceptional creative talent across Africa. We are committed to bringing forth a new generation of African storytellers, and together, we will change the narrative.”

Kunda Kids was founded in 2020 by Oladele and Louisa Olafuyi with the aim of showcasing the various elements of African culture in creative, fun, and simple formats for children.