By CAROLINE WANJUGU

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In the Ethiopian city of Harar, humans and hyenas have a unique relationship, a peaceful coexistence that has become a tourist attraction in the city.

Two filmmakers, Tanzanian Joshua Faber and Ethiopian Elshadye Temesgen, have made an animated film, The Legend of the Hyena Man on the phenomenon, drawing inspiration from Ethiopia and Nigeria. In Harar, Ethiopia, hyenas and humans have a coexisting relationship, a factor that attracts tourists to the city.

The Hyena men feed the carnivores with meat while a crowd of spectators watch on. Hyena men are a chosen group of people from the community who tame the animals and keep them in their homes, and make a living from them by displaying them to crowds. This tradition in Harar began during a famine in the 19th century when the starving animals started attacking livestock and people. A man began feeding them porridge to keep them from eating his livestock, and it has been a practice since then.

The film is set in a fictional world that seeks to bring together the hyena culture in Ethiopia and Nigeria. It follows a boy, Abeo, who wants to be a hyena man. While pursuing this interest, he discovers that his mentor is responsible for his father’s death, so he has to decide whether to continue pursuing his dream or give it up. Joshua studied Film and Television Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam, and after graduating, he applied for the MultiChoice Talent Factory Academy. It was here that he met Temesgen.

“We spoke about the Ethiopian culture and how men live with hyenas. I then came across an article on hyena men in Nigeria, and I thought to myself, there could be a good story here. So, I reached out to Temesgen, and we started putting the pieces together, creating the characters and writing the storyline,” Mr Faber explains.

Read: Harar: Where hyena is also man’s best friend

The duo and Matthew Valerian, a film producer and the founder of M2V Production, applied for the Durban FilmMart (DFM) Pitch and Finance Forum, where they pitched the animation project.

“Durban loved the story, and we got selected for the Pitch and Finance Forum of the 2024 Durban FilmMart. We were mentored for six months, and, last month, we won the Hidden Talents Award provided by the Hidden Hand Studios. The Hidden Hand Studios will work with us to create a 90-second trailer for the film, Legend of the Hyena Man,” he says.

Joshua says that now they are seeking funding amounting to $100,000 for the development of the film.

“There is still a lot of research that has to be done to get the cultural aspect right. I need to travel to Ethiopia and interview the hyena men. Most of our research has been online and there are still loopholes in the story as we have not had a real-life experience with the hyena men to create an authentic story. We also want to travel with our character designers. We have preliminary designs of hyenas and the hyena men and now we want to lock those,” he says.

The development funding would also help the team partner with a production company in Nigeria, as part of the story happens there, they say. They are looking for equity investors, angel investors, partners, and anyone who can relate to the story. “We seek to create an authentic animation story with international standards,” Joshua says, adding, "It would be a movie, but there is a huge possibility of it becoming a series.”

The Tanzanian has written and produced The Fulltime Husband, which airs on Showmax.