Comic Conventions & Festivals in Africa
This page lists all the comic centred events in Africa, past and present. Recurring Comic Conventions such as the Lagos Comic Con, FanCon Cape Town and others as well as new players like Comic-Con Africa and Ibadan Comic-Con among others. These conventions will be linked to our subdomain, database.squidmag.ink where further details will be provided on each event.
We’ve categorized the conventions based on their regions. You can click any region below to immediately jump to that page.
West Africa Comic Cons
Coco Bulles is the International Festival of Cartoons and Comics of Abidjan. The aim is to give a panoramic view of the comic literature and graphics in Africa.
The festival contains art exhibitions, workshops, conferences and roundtables. The venue for the festival was the Culture Palace of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The Geek Showcase by Squid Magazine is a chill space to explore the things geeks love. At the showcase, we’ll explore comics, video games, animation, VR, beat-making, programming, digital illustration, skateboarding and hip-hop music.
The Geek Showcase will be the place for music aficionados, design nerds, storytelling wizards, game gbees, tech gurus and other creative people to come together to let loose, brainstorm, innovate and create.
East Africa Comic Conventions
Southern Africa Comic Cons
Nairobi Comic Con (NAICCON)
NAICCON is East Africa’s premiere and leading Comic Convention. Since its humble inception in 2014, NAICCON now attracts audiences of well over 3,000 attendees. NAICCON was founded by Thomas Imboywa and is part of the DISCOMICS Alliance of Comic Conventions.
In 2019, the convention hosted the fourth preliminary rounds of Anncey’s Animation du Monde Competition. Here’s a recap of Nairobi Comic Con 2019.
North Africa Comic Conventions
EGYcon
EGYcon is a unique event for Otakus, Cosplayers, Gamers, Comic enthusiasts, Artists & Geeks of all sorts in Egypt. EGYcon is Egypt’s premiere comic convention and was founded by Islam Risha in 2014.
EGYcon however first started in 2013 with a series of mini meet-ups and in 2014 a whole convention was held as a big meet up that literally “escalated quickly.”
The first EGYcon was held on February 28, 2014 at the Al-Sawy Cultural Wheel. It has subsequently taken place at the GrEEK Campus in Egypt.
The main goals of EGYcon according to their Facebook is twofold,
- Spread the anime, games and comics culture in Egypt; and
- to create a day of fun for all ages.
Find out more about EGYcon on this Facebook page.
Conclusion
Comic conventions are inextricably linked with gaming and animation which all make up the geek experience. For this reason, we’ve also included some gaming conventions as well as cosplay events (yes, there are cosplayers in Africa. Look up Jessie Chan on Instagram). We have however, dedicated another page to animation festivals and animation themed events in Africa.
Below is an alphabetical list of all the comic conventions and festivals as well as some game specific conventions in Africa. This table provides a quick overview of all the conventions listed above along with some extra details.
List of African Comic Conventions
| Event | Country | Organizers | Founders | Year Founded/Launched |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nerd Con | Ghana | Nerd Core Studios | Paul Ziem | |
| Nairobi Comic Con | Kenya | Nairobi Comic Con | Thomas Imboywa | 2014 |
| DigiArt Fest | Uganda | Elupe Comics | ||
| Lagos Comic Con | Nigeria | Mustard Seed Communication | Ayodele Elegba | 2012 |
| The Geek Showcase | Ghana | Squid Magazine | Kadi Yao Tay & Kofi Sydney Asare | 2020 |
| Comic-Con Africa | South Africa | Reed Pop Events | 2018 | |
| Ibadan Comic Con | Nigeria | 2020 | ||
| Abuja Comic Con | Nigeria | 2019 | ||
| Mboa BD | Cameroon | |||
| Geek Planete | Benin | 2017 | ||
| Lusaka Comic Con | Zambia | |||
| Comexposed | Zimbabwe | Comexposed | Tinodiwa Zambe Makoni & Eugene Ramirez Mapondera | |
| ICON CGC | South Africa | |||
| Movie Jabber Expo | Kenya | 2019 | ||
| Coco Bulles | Senegal | |||
| FanCon | South Africa | |||
| Senegal Manga Festival | Senegal | 2019 | ||
| Comic Con Tunisia | Tunisia | Attractive City | ||
| EGYCon | Egypt | Islam Risha | 2014 | |
| Comic Con Egypt | Egypt | |||
| Comic Con Capetown | South Africa | Reedpop Events | Reedpop Events | 2020 |
| rAge Expo | South Africa | |||
| Open Book Comics Fest | South Africa | Mervyn Sloman & Ben Williams | ||
| Geek Fictions Convention | Egypt | BIG GEEKS Communications | ||
| Comic Con Libya | Libya |
Discover upcoming African geek events including conventions, book launches, exhibitions and more below.