How Netflix Wants to Empower Africans to Tell their Own Stories

Globally acclaimed streaming platform Netflix entered Africa in 2016 and with the hit Africa series Blood and Water and Queen Sono, the entertainment giant is looking to deepen its African storytelling. Partnering with Realness Insitute, Netflix has launched two training programmes an Episodic Lab (EPL) focused on writers from South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, and a Development Executive Traineeship (DET) for candidates across the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

Netflix statement on the programme reads, “There’s an African humanist philosophy called ‘Ubuntu’ which broadly means, ‘I am, because you are’. This idea that ‘we are, because of others’ aptly captures the essence of Netflix’s approach to its partnership with Africa’s creative industries because, without the existence of our storytellers, our favourite Netflix stories wouldn’t be possible”.

The selection process sieved through over 500 applicants from Nigeria, South African and Kenya, to a final 12, who will be take in-depth training sessions over the next three months.

The Programmes

Episodic Lab (EPL)

This Netflix programme will see six writers from Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya pitch story ideas and concepts all the while guided by experts from the industry.

Netflix will also provide them with creative training and feedback. At the end of the programme, they’ll be able to pitch their story concept to Netflix for production.

Development Executive Traineeship (DET)

Concurrently, the six Development Executive Traineeship (DET) participants will be fully immersed in the story development process. Their training will involve improving their technical abilities by collaborating with EPL writers to turn story ideas into captivating performances.