“Captain South Africa: Meet the Political and Non-Violent Black Superheroine With Natural Hair and Xhosa-Inspired Costume”

Black superheroine, natural hair and bandana in the colors of the South African flag: After Captain America, here is a female and “non-violent” equivalent, Captain South Africa.

“She’s a political, non-violent, diplomatic superheroine: she doesn’t hit on criminals,” her creator, Bill Masuku, a 30-year-old Zimbabwean who lives torn between his country and Africa, told AFP. du Sud, during the Cape Town version of the comics and animation festival, Comic-Con.

His character’s hobbyhorses? Poverty, inequality, poor housing: “A modern exploration of what South Africa could be”, with a gloomy economic and social climate, summarizes Mr. Masuku.

“I was inspired by the people I studied with in college, by those movements that called for political change without inciting violence. And the women who inspired me pushed me to write their stories. in my own way, in comics,” he continues.

A wave of student protests against rising tuition fees shook South Africa from 2015. Bill Masuku was then on the benches of Rhodes University in Grahamstown (south-east), one of the epicenters of the protest.

Imagined in 2018 as a South African version of the superhero evolving in the Marvel universe, Captain America, the heroine of his comics was initially represented in a blue and red costume.

But “people were much more hooked on her second outfit”, whose black and white patterns reflect her “Xhosa heritage”, one of South Africa’s ethnic groups. Ten volumes and nearly 5,000 copies later, Captain South Africa is part of an emerging “proudly African” genre.

Dressed in a Valkyrie costume, dark warrior from the film Thor, Abigail Backman-Daniels, a 23-year-old student, says she grew up “without ever seeing characters who looked like her”.

“It’s amazing to see this happen and the adaptations to the different contexts of African countries,” she says delighted.

Bill Masuku is convinced that Captain South Africa could become “a springboard” for young authors and illustrators from the continent. A dozen candidates have already responded to his call to collaborate on the next volume of the adventures of his heroine.

According to Loyiso Mkize, creator of the first South African superhero “Kwezi” in 2014, “there is a growing demand for this kind of content”.

“We are at the dawn of a golden age where we are beginning to show what South African comics are,” he predicts.