"Video games represent a future for young people in Africa"

" I came to win ! ", launches Cheick Kamagate, who hopes to win the tournament PES a football game, during the second Festival of Electronics and Video Game of Abidjan (FEJA), an event to promote the video game industry in Africa.

This Ivorian bachelor aged 19, who devotes himself to his pbadion "Three to four hours a day", would like to buy gaming equipment with the bonus awarded to the winner of the tournament. "If I can, I will work in the video game as a developer, but rather in the United States", says this future computer science student.

Africa currently accounts for only 1% of the global video game market, according to studies by leading global consulting firms and telecom operator Orange. The countries that weigh the most are Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa. But it is a promising outlet, thanks to its demographic vitality, its youth and its thirst for new technologies: half a billion less than 25 years, as many people connected to the Internet, and a billion telephone subscribers mobile, half of which plays on a smartphone, reports Serge Thiam, a specialist consultant.

Gamers from a dozen countries

"The video game represents a future for young people in Africa, it's a source of new jobs, a way to make a living"says Sidick Bakayoko, creator of the Ivorian company Paradise Game and founder of FEJA.

The festival, organized over three days, from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 November, is more than a tournament; It aims to explain to young people how the video game industry works, what jobs this sector offers and how to train. In order to attract the public, "gamers" (professional players) from ten countries of the continent have been invited, to participate alongside Ivorian visitors to the different tournaments of adventure games or e-sports.

If envy and enthusiasm are real, financial means are lacking in Africa, recognizes Sidick Bakayoko. Young people lack money to buy games and "The economic model remains to be found". No data are available on the total number of jobs currently represented by the sector on the continent.

About 300 gaming studios exist, but they are micro-enterprises that employ fewer than five people, says Bakayoko. With some success stories, like that of the Cameroonian studio Kiro'o whose adventure game Aurion (in which a fallen king is trying to regain his throne) has broken through at the international level.

Cultural wealth

Several studios are also beginning to emerge in Madagascar and the Central African Republic, according to Mr Bakayoko, for whom Africa must capitalize on its cultural wealth in order to differentiate itself. The common point between Aurion, dahalo, developed by the Malagasy studio Lomay, or The Boy in Savannah, from the Togolese creator Pio Jules Tchedou: they highlight the cultures of their countries, in a world dominated by Western or Asian games.

A commitment widely welcomed by players present at FEJA. «I would like to create an adventure game inspired by Soundiata Keïta», Mandingo sovereign and founder of the empire of Mali in XIII^e century, explains Elie Kouadio Kouamé, a 24-year-old computer graphics student and "gamer" adept at SEP.

Belko Diallo, a 22-year-old Burkinabe who came to play in the tournament Street Fighter (fighting game), see further. This dream medical student "To combine [sa discipline] and video games, using certain game technologies for medical examinations ".