Stories are important. They serve a simple, yet powerful means of transmitting and preserving memories, history and cultural values through generations. Overtime, the age-long practice of storytelling has evolved and taken on different forms, thanks to the advent of technology, the internet and the media.
Be it a television show or radio programme, podcasts, audio and video skits or comics, there are now several fresh mediums through which stories can be told to a large and more diverse audience. Modé Aderinokun is a story teller, a young Nigerian in diaspora who is sharing her story with the world through a web comic series she’s created, called JAND.
Jand, slang in Nigerian pidgin English for the United Kingdom which, in this case, was coined to be the acronym for Just Another Nigerian Drama, explores the lives of Nigerian undergrads living and studying in London. In an article by OkayAfrica, Aderinokun said she was inspired by the need to show a different side of Nigeria, and a different class of Nigerians. One that has not been readily explored by the media, of the upper and middle class Nigerians.
There is a growing comic culture in Nigeria and it has birthed an industry with great potential that is yet to be fully tapped. A few Nigerians like Jide Martins of Comic Republic and Somto Ajuluchukwu of Vortex comics are working hard to educate an audience and garner widespread following to value African stories and culture through comics, but a lot of their characters are super heroes and mythical creatures, not everyday people with relatable life experiences. This is the gap JAND fills.
Aderinokun’s JAND characters and narrative are modelled after every day experiences of young Nigerian adults in diaspora. As she has studied in Nigeria and London, it is easy for her to create stories drawn from personal experiences. “All the characters embody something from me,” she admitted, adding that some characters were loosely based on people and situations. “But the characters tend to take a life of their own the more I write.”
With characters and narratives built around familiar themes such as love, sex, religion, and culture, the comic is totally relatable and incredibly interesting, with cross-cultural appeal. This is a feature that Aderinokun says is very important and one that has given the comic loyal readers and incited positive engagement.
In trying to make JAND more relatable and accessible, both to a Nigerian and foreign audience, the comic is infused with a bit of Pidgin English and a glossary for people not familiar with Nigeria’s colloquialisms. Aderinokun says in doing so, she wants to show non-Nigerians how universally relatable our stories and cultures are, “… although we’re from different cultures, at the core, our stories are the same”, she says.
Listen to the podcast below for more insight:
