The Influence of Global Pop Culture on Malawian Youth

The Influence of Global Pop Culture on Malawian Youth

In recent years I've watched an explosion in the popularity of foreign media and entertainment among the youth here in Malawi — myself and my peers included — namely anime, manga, and comic books. More and more of us are picking up and engaging with this media, and not just on the surface level, reading or watching it, but forming communities around it, creating business opportunities, and drawing inspiration from it to create our own work. This goes beyond entertainment; it's reshaping how we, the youth of Malawi, connect with each other and the opportunities open to us.

This rise in popularity is best characterized by the growth of dedicated fan communities and conventions among my peers. These provide a space where those of us with a shared interest in anime, manga, comics, games, and more can come together to engage with each other, share ideas, discuss, participate in activities, and buy memorabilia centered around our favorite media properties. In 2025, CYBEREXPO 2025 was hosted in Blantyre, Malawi's first ever tech, gaming, and music convention, featuring a wide range of activities such as e-sports competitions, game development showcases, and a cosplay competition giving people the chance to dress up and show off their creative costume designs of their favorite fictional characters from anime, comics, games, and more. The convention proved a resounding success, showing that there was real demand for such events in Malawi and that we, the youth, are more than happy to support them. Since then, more groups have started organizing these events on a more regular basis, namely the group NerdAxis, which has been spearheading this effort, not only organizing frequent events but also providing a place for people to discuss their favorite topics outside of events through their WhatsApp community. Global media has also acted as a creative inspiration to many of us. Now more than ever, my peers and I are picking up pencils to draw and create our own characters and stories inspired by our favorite stories. What starts off as mere emulation of a certain manga or artist's style blossoms into something truly unique. We see this inspiration take form in the various comic books and manga being created by Malawian authors such as Nkosana Chipazi the author of Blood Hound. Dedicated communities and accounts have even been created with the sole purpose of promoting and pushing these locally made products such as Cultural Comics Malawi.

Malawi isn't really characterized by easy access to foreign products, and this has become even more true now given the state of the economy. Especially when it comes to entertainment, we have no theaters to watch newly released movies, and our TV channels, although offering a large selection, still don't offer everything we want. The situation becomes even more difficult when it comes to securing physical media (comics/manga) or memorabilia, as the only option is to order it online, and with limited access to Forex, that process becomes even more of a challenge. But we've found ways to circumvent these issues. Firstly, although being legally dubious (and in no way is this meant to shine it in a good light), many of my peers have resorted to pirating the shows and movies we like watching.

Faced with limited access to what we like, many of us haven't taken that as defeat but have instead taken it upon ourselves to make those things accessible, creating several new business opportunities along the way. Those with access to ordering physical media and merch online have started bringing them into Malawi and selling them to people here, recognizing the growing demand for physical media and merchandise. Some don't just buy and resell it; they create it themselves. This has opened up new ways for us, the youth, to make our own money in a rapidly expanding market.

But now the question remains: why has this media become so popular, and where does it all stem from? People have always had a liking towards foreign media, partly because we don't have much of our own to offer here in Malawi, but when it comes to media like anime, comics, manga, and animated shows, this level of popularity hasn't always been there. For most of their existence, these entertainment mediums were viewed as childish, catered mainly to children, and those of us who did enjoy them were often labeled as weird. For comics, the shift in perception came in 2008 with the release of the first Iron Man movie, which was so successful it kicked off what became an enormous, interconnected franchise. The success of Iron Man and the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe renewed interest in the source material behind the stories being adapted for the screen, drawing more people in to pick it up and engage with it. For anime and manga, the shift didn't come until much later, in 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people had to stay indoors, and out of boredom, more and more started picking up anime and, subsequently, its source material (manga), sending its popularity skyrocketing globally. Most of these changes happened outside of Malawi, but as more people engaged with anime, its presence on social media grew, and it eventually found its way here. Beyond that global shift in perspective, our affinity for these mediums was instilled in many of us at a very young age. Most of the cartoons we grew up watching were foreign-made, based on that same source material shows like Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, based on comic books, or Dragon Ball, based on manga. Our liking for these things runs deep; most people I know who are drawn to this media grew up watching it already, and rather than writing it off as childish and dropping it as they got older, they kept engaging with it, more so now than ever, realizing there's more to it than surface-level stories for children that the medium also offers more mature stories exploring adult themes in ways that relate and resonate with us.

What started as a niche interest has grown into something much bigger a source of community, income, and creative expression for young people across Malawi. My peers and I aren't just consuming foreign media anymore; we're building conventions around it, businesses off the back of it, and original stories inspired by it. Anime, manga, and comics gave us a way to connect with each other and with the wider world, and in turn, we've found ways to make it our own. As access to these mediums keeps growing and our local creative scene keeps expanding, I believe this is only the beginning of what youth culture in Malawi can become.