Angela Aquereburu is one of the leading figures in French-speaking African broadcasting. She is known for her work as a director, producer, presenter, and more. In 2009, she co-founded Yobo Studios in Lomé with her husband, Jean-Luc Rabatel, marking her entry into the world of audiovisual production, where she has worked in most roles.
She is launching a new production, the innovative aspects of which she details here.Can you tell us about your AHOE project?
Ahoé is a Togolese web series in the local language, consisting of 10 episodes of 26 minutes each, financed entirely by private funds.
Togolese people with low purchasing power cannot afford to pay for a C+ or New World TV subscription or cinema tickets. The aim is therefore to offer everyone popular, easy-to-consume content that is free on social media. As such, Ahoé will initially be broadcast exclusively and free of charge on social media.
Why did you choose to produce this web series in the local language?
First of all, not everyone in Togo speaks French as their mother tongue. When I started working on our Zem series (a short format) in 2008, I realized that the actors struggled with the French scripts because it wasn't their mother tongue. In Lomé, the language most commonly spoken on the streets is Mina. So I had them rehearse in Mina and then perform in French. I also produced a version of the Zem series in Mina, which was very successful. It was therefore obvious to produce Ahoé in Mina: the actors are more comfortable, their acting is more fluid, and viewers are happy to watch a series in Mina.
What's the pitch?
This is the story of Eli DOUSSI, who returns to Togo after 10 years away to bury his mother and leave again as quickly as possible. But things don't go as planned…
What were the major stages in the development of the web series?
With Madie Foltek, we first thought about what we wanted to tell: a popular story inspired by a common situation in Togo and the sub-region.
Then we brainstormed for several days with other volunteers about the storyline and structure of the episodes: Who are the main characters? How does it begin? How does it end? What are the main stages of episodes 1 to 10?
Madie Foltek continued working alone on the dialogue continuity for the 10 episodes while I decided who would direct this wonderful project: Julio Teko.
We put out a call for volunteers, and the production, technical, artistic, and communications teams were formed.
The next steps are filming, post-production, and distribution.
At the same time, you organized a digital communication campaign around the project. Is this crucial to the success of a web series?
In my opinion, there can be no digital fiction series without a digital communication campaign. We had to mobilize the community and see if the project was engaging enough. Furthermore, as this was a community project, it could only be done digitally, which is currently the fastest and most accessible way to reach as many people as possible in Togo.
What do you think are the essential ingredients for making a good web series?
That's a difficult question… There's so much on offer… When I started out in 2008, my colleagues wondered why we wanted to make series rather than "cinema," the "seventh art"… in short, why we didn't want to rub shoulders with the "big names." But today, with the structuring of channels and streaming platforms, everyone wants to make series in West Africa. Viewers finally have a choice. That's a good thing. So what are the ingredients to reach them? I have no idea. We're going to tell a story from our own backyard and we hope that those who have placed their trust in us will enjoy watching it.
As the director of an audiovisual production company, why did you decide to get involved in this type of project?
Yobo Studios produced short formats such as Zem, Palabres, and Mi-Temps, followed by the 26-minute series Hospital IT and Oasis. However, only a certain segment of the Togolese population had access to these series, as they were broadcast on pay TV channels or channels that required a decoder. In Togo, the development of infrastructure and laws conducive to audiovisual industrialization is not keeping pace with content production and therefore demand. The advertising market is weak, and there are very few broadcasters able to afford to buy or co-produce content. We are therefore forced to offer our content to pan-African channels, which naturally have a pan-African vision: they must appeal to all their subscribers. These channels also have editorial obligations. These factors can sometimes dilute certain local cultural specificities in our stories and limit our creativity.
So, with Ahoé, we can tell a story freely, without editorial or cultural constraints.
When will we be able to watch this web series?
Good question! I'd rather not answer that because when we launched the campaign in 2021, the plan was to release it to the public in December of the same year. So I don't want to make any more promises. I can tell you that filming is scheduled for June 2023 😉
Any other projects to announce for the coming months?
We would like Ahoé to be the first in a long series of web series in local languages. We are starting with Mina, but why not continue with Fon, Lingala, or Dioula?