Our “please more black girl superheroes” prayers are being answered!
Meet the Tibeb Girls, three young superheroes who unite to make rural Ethiopian communities safer for girls experiencing gender-based violence and discrimination.
The animated show tackles some of the country’s most pervasive problems, including stigma around menstruation, child marriage, female genital mutilation and access to education. Tibeb Girls incorporates fun and engaging methods to shatter the silence around these issues and concerns that Ethiopian girls routinely face.
According to the United Nations Foundation’s Girl Up, only 57 percent of Ethiopian girls between the ages of 15 and 24 can read and write, and about 1 in every 5 girls are forced to marry before they turn 15. About half of all girls and women have never received any type of education.
Photo: Whiz Kids Workshop
In Tibeb Girls, each member of the trio possesses different powers: Power Girl has superhuman strength and speed; Whiz Kid Girl can see the future and Empathy Girl has the power to feel others’ feelings. Their superpowers highlight essential qualities for real girls in Ethiopia — self-empowerment, education, and compassion.
The animated series, which aims to shift the way mainstream audiences see Ethiopian girls by placing them in the center of their own stories, was created by Whiz Kids Workshop, the company behind the award-winning educational children’s series Tsehai Loves Learning. The Ethiopian company was founded by a woman and almost exclusively employs female creators.
“Most of the issues we’re raising aren’t discussed in the community, schools, or in the house,” Bruktawit Tigabu, Whiz Kids Workshop’s CEO, founder and creative director, told TV2Africa. “That’s another inspiration — to really break the taboo and to give [girls] a very entertaining and engaging way to talk about serious subjects.”
“For me, it was very important to have girls who look like me and who look like my child to be on the screen playing very good role models,” Tigabu added.
Photo: Whiz Kids Workshop
So dope! The first season of Tibeb Girls is currently only available through screenings at schools and events around Ethiopia and is also published as a comic and radio series. Additionally, a second season of Tibeb Girls is in the works, with 13 TV episodes and 13 radio episodes. Whiz Kids Workshop is currently pitching the series to broadcasters around the country and across Africa to gain a wider audience, so let’s get the word out!
