On streaming platforms, algorithms guide viewers through content under the illusion of infinite choice. Yet there remain enormous gaps in programming. AfroLandTV, a streaming service with North Texas origins, promises to close one of those gaps by offering African film and television programs to viewers across the U.S, for free.
Michael Maponga, the service’s founder, emigrated from Zimbabwe to Dallas in 2002, he was 10 years old. “I lost touch with my culture because I stopped watching and listening to our stories,” he said.
Starting in June, through a partnership with Comcast, AfroLandTV will be available to 50 million households. Viewers can also watch online now by signing up at afrolandtv.com.
Maponga’s notion of a hub for African media came to him in 2015 when he created a bare-bones website of YouTube videos to gauge interest in the concept. He credits Dallas’ startup scene — in particular, programs like Tech Wildcatters and Capital Factory — with helping him build what became the finished product. It took nearly five years of reworking his pitch before he got the boost he needed: $160,000 in seed funding from Techstars, a competitive accelerator program.
“As a Black founder, it’s much harder for us to raise capital than our counterparts. Imagine pitching a company to investors who are all old white men, and you are pitching company about African stories.”
Besides helping immigrants stay connected to home, Maponga hopes that by exposing American viewers to a wider variety of African media, AfroLandTV will make them less inclined to see the continent as a monolith.
“Not one TV channel here, or radio station, focused on the rich, diverse stories we have back home,” he thought before founding the service. That’s no longer quite the case.
