Imanzi Creations, a company that deals in writing and publishing children’s books, has decided to spice up Rwandan traditional stories through animations. Credia Ruzigana Umuhire, the CEO of Imanzi Creations, notes that changing the reading format would appeal to the young generation to apprehend their history easier and in a fun way. She says, this is because it’s difficult to find the old books that were available then. But she has no doubt that if they translate that information in a way or style that children can understand, it will be better for them (children) to find themselves connected to such stories. The animation titled “Ngunda” has a narrator and images in the background. The video is free of charge and can be accessed via their YouTube channel Imanzi Creations. Research was done through different books on Google. The animated cover of ‘Ngunda’. According to Umuhire, it took her and the team four months to have the story done, that is, recording and illustrating. The animation has a book and puzzle game version based on the same characters, both are yet to be out. Unlike the animation, these will not be for free. “We did a survey first to be sure if people would buy the idea of the animation, to our surprise, they showed interest in it, but also requested for a book version,” she says. The book is already edited and Umuhire is excited to distribute it to schools. But in order to publish it, she awaits REB’s approval. Umuhire notes that she is targeting ages 12 to 25 and hopes to put more emphasis on the traditional stories. So far, they have five more traditional stories in the pipeline. Imanzi Creations started with a publishing studio where they created stories that inspire children of Rwanda and the youth in general, by giving them the characters and Rwandan people they can relate with. The creative company does art and entertainment. Most of the books created are comics or graphic novels from which they make puzzles for children. For those that can’t read, they can at least play with the characters. These characters are printed on wood boards. She considers that reading should start at a young age to inspire the little ones to read as they grow. She says, the books they create are more pictures than words because children are more attracted to pictures. But they consider all age groups. For instance, teenagers about 14 years of age are able to read comics though are more intrigued to graphic novels. These have less pictures and more wording. This prompted her to create a graphic novel named, “Genesis.” But then, she also considered ages of 15 to 16. They love words though not like a big novel, but a style that merges childhood and a bit of adulthood content. Imanzi creations was then able to create a romantic novel for this age group titled, “Last Goodbye”. By this, the company is trying to bridge the gap between the young and the old. All the books are published under, “Children of a thousand hills”. The books are somehow fictional to make them a little easy for children to enjoy. Umuhire says that the main objective of the books is to translate it in a way the children can comprehend. The books entail a variety of topics from culture, art, history, fiction, to fantasy, and so forth.
