Inspired by her roots and modern music, Zambian writer Malenga Mulendema created Netflix’s first African original series, Supa Team 4, to empower kids and show that women in her homeland can be superheroes, too. The CG-animated show premieres globally today on the streamer, and also serves as a metaphor for Africa’s growing animation industry.  

Aimed at kids ages six to 11 and set in Zambia, Supa Team 4 (25 x 22 minutes) centers around a group of four teenage girls who are recruited to become superheroes and save the world. Classic female-led action series such as The Powerpuff Girls, Totally Spies! and Kim Possible inspired Mulendema to showcase the strength of African women in her original concept. “The show highlights how a group’s collective strength fosters individual empowerment,” she says.

R&B and hip-hop girl groups from the ’90s also embodied the bonds she wanted to capture in Supa Team 4. “[These groups] came across to me like a sisterhood, whose strength came from the different elements that each member brought to the group,” Mulendema says. “I liked that they could stand for something serious, but at the same time didn’t shy away from being fun and silly.”

It’s been a long road for the project. Mulendema pitched it to South Africa’s Triggerfish Animation Studios in 2015, after being named one of the winners of the Triggerfish Story Lab emerging creatives support program. In 2017, Triggerfish and CAKE in the UK began developing the series under the working title Mama K’s Team 4, and two years later, Netflix came on board as a producer.

“The intention was to have a show full of fun, humor, action and heart,” says Mulendema. “Today, when I look back and think about how we have unpacked the concept, it’s still that.” At its core, the show is about friendship, community, identity and leadership—seen through the lens of the sisterhood between four strong African girls.

Supa Team 4 (25 x 22 minutes), previously Mama K’s Team 4, is aimed at kids ages six to 11 and set in Zambia.

But Supa Team 4 is also about bringing African female talent together behind the camera. Netflix, Triggerfish and CAKE began looking for Black actors and writers for the series in 2019 and ended up with a room of eight African women screenwriters, including Vanessa Kanu, Maame Boateng and Tshepo Moche, and five African women actors.

“The [screenwriters] made sure the action was epic, the jokes landed, and the characters were fun and relatable,” Mulendema says. “They represent the Zambian people and our culture.” And having the support of a global streamer and well-known producers highlights that Africa’s animation scene is starting to get the international recognition it deserves, she adds.

From a more personal perspective, Mulendema feels Supa Team 4 will help other African-born productions get greenlit. “Although animation studios across the continent are at different stages of growth, we understand that we can only go further together,” she says. “As a result, we [as local producers] are seeing a rise in many collaborative efforts that are already bearing wonderful fruit.”

Supa Team 4 is premiering at a time when the African animation industry is picking up some significant momentum. In the past two years alone, Triggerfish’s Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire began airing on Disney+, Sky picked up Kukua’s YouTube original Super Sema, and Cartoon Network commissioned Pure Garbage’s Garbage Boy and Trash Can.

Looking ahead, Mulendema plans to explore similar storylines to Supa Team 4 in other projects, but she isn’t limiting herself to African superhero stories. And she doesn’t believe Africa’s animation industry should either.