“Supa Team 4 in the Byu Byu ”: Agency, Voice, and Decolonisation in Mama K’s Supa Team 4

In this article, we discuss the relationship between decolonisation and the framing of Mama K’s Supa Team 4. Central to this discussion is whether various narratological techniques in the animation skew decolonisation discourse towards a gendered reclamation of a lost African voice. The study is anchored on Adichie’s pedagogy on the relationship between children’s socialisation and gendered identity in Africa. Also instrumental to this study are studies on African animation that speak to the potential that African animation has to give a voice to the African story from an African perspective. This study employed a qualitative, interpretative approach, with season one of Supa Team 4 as a case study of the framing of the Zambian animation about decolonisation. Through a textual study of Supa Team 4 and thematic analysis of emerging patterns, the study found that manipulating an array of narratological devices assists in giving the girls in the animation agency and voice. Therefore, our thesis is that Supa Team 4 points to a decolonisation that considers women’s issues instrumental to a wholesome decolonisation exercise.