Akaliza Keza Gara
She is the founder and managing director of Shaking Sun, a multimedia business specialising in website development, graphic design and computer animation in Rwanda. Gara enjoys a list of accolades, including being one of four Rwandan women entrepreneurs recognised in 2012 for their extraordinary efforts in Information Communication Technology (ICT) by the International Telecommunication Union, and being appointed as a member of the 4Afrika advisory council for Microsoft this year.
But Gara believes that her main achievement was as being part of a team of animators who worked on African Tales, the first ever cartoon series produced in Rwanda.
“Seeing my name in the credits [of the cartoon series] was a big moment for me and I am so thankful I had that opportunity,” she said in an interview. For someone who has lived in 9 different countries (Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, the USA, France, Switzerland, Italy and the UK), the 31-year-old has had insight into the values unique to different cultures and this has influenced her works in graphic design, website development and animation.
After founding the Yambi Animation Studios, Gara is in the process of setting up an animation studio to create cartoons and films targeting African children by creating characters and settings that they can relate to and stories to motivate and entertain them.
