Africa is a continent that is largely misunderstood. To the outside world, particularly the western world, the perception about Africa for decades was of a continent characterized by diseases, hunger and civil wars. While the perceptions were not farfetched, the tendency to tell the Africa story inclined on negative connotations that had painted a picture of a continent in dire need of redemption.

Over the past decade and a half, the narrative of Africa has however been changing. Indeed the continent has since shed off the tag of a ‘Hopeless Continent’ and today the tagline is one of ‘Africa Arising’. There are good reasons why the African narrative is more of optimism rather than despair. The main reason is that Africa is today the next frontier for anchoring global economic growth considering that six of the ten fastest growing economies are in the continent. 

Levitt Kamau, a co-founder of Take2-Afrika Media Ltd, is one of the passionate people who are shaping and championing an optimist narrative of Africa. Through producing documentaries and docu-drama among other genres, Take2-Afrika Media Ltd is telling the true and positive story of Africa, thus playing a critical role in eradicating the negative perceptions about the continent.

“I felt a compelling desire and need to tell the true story of Africa,” he says. He adds that life is mainly about telling stories and some of the stories told about Africa were not giving the continent hope. “This made me keen to take up the challenge to tell of the hope and abounding potential in the continent,” he explains, adding the firm believe all its stories should be told from an African experience, hence its slogan ‘the heart of the story is the story from the heart’.
Take2-Afrika Media Ltd history dates back to late 2000s when Kamau travelled to South Africa to pursue a postgraduate in Cinematography. After completing his studies, he did voluntary work with a Christian organization in Pretoria and later returned home.
Back in Kenya, he initially worked from his house then hired an office and employed a team only later to reset up his office at home to save on costs. “I realized that investments in documentaries making is a long term initiative with incomes taking a bit longer to be realized and hence the need for pragmatism in operating such a venture,” he explains.

Why the focus on documentaries? According to Kamau, documentaries have many advantages compared to feature films. They are narratives that tell real stories of issues faced in life as opposed the fiction in features films. Apart from being truthful, documentaries are instructive, inspirational and at times historical, hence their shelf life is timeless.

The firm first documentary was on school children with cerebral palsy and autism. The documentary, which the firm produced for free, told the story of two girls who have made it in life despite the handicap. It also followed the stories of four other children who went on to become a pilot, an engineer, a musician and a cateress respectively despite their condition. The theme, essentially, was for parents to embrace and support children with disabilities to live to their full potentials.

As a documentary film director, Kamau shot the first documentary on the Kenya Army in celebrations of 40 years of the army operations since independence, which was broadcasted in four local TV stations. The company is still very proud to have been part of the first of such for the country’s armed forces.

When it started, the firm targeted to work with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working for women and children, and in the environment, water and sanitation sectors. Being a commercial entity, it soon dawned on the firm that focusing on this market segment alone was not viable. In a pragmatic shift, it decided to diversify and target private companies shooting documentaries for corporate social responsibility initiatives (among other activities), shooting advertising commercials and producing TV reality shows.

Among the private companies that Take2-Afrika Media Ltd has worked with is Haco Tiger brands and Unilever. The firm has undertaken many projects for the consumer goods giant and is currently involved on seven of its brands, including Omo.

The firm has also produced documentaries for many reputable Pan-African and international organizations including the BBC, Across Sudan (Christian organization), Africa Union of the Blind (AFUB), Comic Relief UK and the International Red Cross Societies (IRCS) among others.

IRCS in partnership with a South African company provided the firm with one of the most memorable experiences while producing the ‘Road to Death’ documentary, a true story of a woman and her three children in search of water and food during a debilitating drought in Somalia that end tragically. The children perish but the woman survives to tell the story, which helped IRCS to raise over $150 million (Sh14 billion) to drill boreholes in Somalia.

Take2-Afrika Media Ltd prides in knowing that the stories they produce are not just narratives, but life changing stories. In 2013, the firm produced a documentary of a seven year old girl in the county of Elgeyo Marakwet who was almost killed by her father because she was born blind. Upon projecting the five-minutes documentary to a group of invited CEO’s during a dinner in a Nairobi hotel, about Sh10 million was pledged to facilitate the purchase of braille machines for blind children in Kenya.

Being among the few local firms fully dedicated to producing documentaries in Kenya and Eastern Africa, Take2-Afrika Media Ltd has won contracts with international companies that have come to Kenya seeking out partnerships. These include the Pine White Productions of Canada and Solvent Southampton University, UK. The firm has worked in Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan and Benin, Mali, Somali, Zambia, among other locations in Africa.

According to Kamau, Take2-Afrika Media Ltd is today a respected firm largely because of remaining focused. The firm has invested in highly qualified staff and works as a small team trained and mentored in-house, irrespective of the past experience or education.

“We believe in working with a sizeable dedicated and disciplined team that is focused on one story at a time, and we do it thoroughly well, we give our one story all the attention it deserve” he explains, adding that bringing out the message clearly and quality production is core for the firm. The firm has also equally invested in latest technology including state of the art cameras, sound and lighting equipment. “We are a one-stop-shop entity with own video editing and music and sound recording studio to strictly control our quality,” he states.

Kamau, who is a senior partner in the firm and is also a part-time lecturer of Cinematography and documentary production at Multi-Media University, observes that many people in the industry lack practical skills and knowledge because teaching in most universities is basically on theory.

While he is keen on impacting practical skills and mentoring of his students and team members, Take2-Afrika Media Ltd through the Fanaka Film Mentorship program is contributing in skills development by offering students opportunities for practical internship, every alternative three months of the year.

To enhance training, Fanaka is in advance stage of partnering with Solvent Southampton University to adapt a relevant curriculum. The firm has also acquired a 20-acre piece of land in the outskirts of Nairobi, where it intends to establish the Fanaka Film Mentoring School, an institution of its kind. “Our full potential is yet to be realized. We have a calling and desire to help improve documentaries production as well as tell stories that shall keep inspiring and educating people all over the world,” notes Kamau.

For Kamau achievement is not merely about earning money. To him the greatest achievement is the effect the documentaries have had and keep having on people. Besides, some of the free documentaries the firm has produced for schools and charity organization have helped to raise funds and provided better opportunities to communities.

Getting adequate operational and expansion finances has been a challenge for the company. Delayed and denied payments have also presented another challenge. Getting like-minded partners has also not been easy. “Our dedicated and good work in production ought to be supported by equally committed persons who would disseminate and market our works but these are often lacking,” he explains.

Kamau also feels the government is not very supportive to the film industry compared to other countries. In South Africa and Nigeria, for instance, foreign producers get incentives including lower taxation. “The government needs to offer incentives to genuine and legitimate foreign producers considering Kenya has some of the best shooting locations. In the process we will also learn. We must agree the west have better and long experience and equipment than us.” he states, adding that the Kenya Film Commission has not been proactive enough in driving the growth of the industry.

Going to the future, the company is in the short-term engaged in production of its first ever 13-episode series of docu-dramas for the digital platform. In the long-term, beside setting up Fanaka Film Mentorship School, Take2-Afrika Media Ltd will engage in production of reality TV of real-life stories of people who have shaped Kenya and the continent. These are stories that can offer learning and challenges that can later provide the society with healing and growing opportunities. “Africa has more beautiful stories than we can tell in our life time”, he sums up.