Iwájú: Miniseries Review

2024. TV-PG on Disney+ and IMDB

Set in the future of Nigeria’s Lagos, Iwájú brings a refreshing take on sci-fi with a story immersed in Nigerian culture. 

A ten-year-old girl who lives on “The Island”, an affluent part of Lagos separated from the rough life of the mainland, is faced with increasingly difficult obstacles to getting what she wants: her father’s attention. 

The story unfolds from several viewpoint characters in such a way as makes them genuinely human and relatable, including the antagonist. The plot’s gentle pace, the characters’ cultural expressions, a cute animal, and good overcoming bad make this a uniquely sweet flavour of sci-fi. A real pleasure, and easy to watch over a day or two in its 20 to 25-minute snippets with my 12yo son ever-pulling to watch the next episode.

Disney’s Iwájú: A Day Ahead companion documentary reports that this is the first time Disney has partnered with an outside organization like Kugali, and the first time they’ve done this mini-series style of shows. Kugali, the Nigerian creators in the partnership, had publicly thrown down the gauntlet to Disney on YouTube, promising to showcase Nigerian artistic talent in a way that would outpace Disney. So Disney offered them a partnership. The result is a cultural immersion that envelops a well-told story and its authentic characters. 

Kugali has proven that new cultural settings are gold for fans of sci-fi the world over. Bring on more!

Review written by: Jazmine Lawrence, Captain (Retired, RCAF), BSc Honours Physics, MA (Theology) student, future sci-fi author