By Tinashe Mushakavanhu
A new feature film, Makemation, is an African coming-of-age story set in a time of artificial intelligence (AI).
Makemation was produced by Nigerian AI-developer-turned-filmmaker Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji. As conversations about AI are dominated by external global powers, his film offers a different vantage point: an AI story rooted in African realities.
After a successful run in Nigerian cinemas in 2025, it’s now touring internationally and I attended a screening at the Harvard Centre for African Studies.
It was followed by a discussion with its producer and economist Ebehi Iyoha, who researches AI in Africa. The evening foregrounded precisely what the film so deftly dramatises: that the future of AI can also be imagined, contested and built on the African continent.
Makemation is about a young girl, Zara, who discovers AI as a tool not just for personal advancement, but for transforming her community.
She must
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