Kenyan Jiwe Studios, headed by Max Musau has joined a team of international collaborators on an Unreal Engine funded initiative dubbed the MetaReality Project.

Pre-colonial Africa is difficult to understand and easily appreciate due to colonial systems of education that often obscured or distorted traditional beliefs and historical culture.

The MetaReality project brings together an intersectional collaboration of the game development industry, the educational sector and emerging technologies and includes representatives from Trent University, University of Waterloo, African Digital Media Institute among others.

Revealing the news in a blog on the studio’s website, Musau wrote:

“I am very excited to announce a new project that we will be working on called the MetaReality Project, we will be pushing the boundaries in historical game development but also in the storytelling and narration of African made games,” he stated.

This collaboration aims to bridge the gap caused by colonial systems. They intend to do so by reaching an African audience, the African diaspora, students around the world and educators with compelling and respectful digital recreations of African stories set in pre-colonial African spaces.

The first phase of the project will be based in the 18th century at Bunce Island, Sierra Leone. It will involve the digital rebuilding of Bunce Island and the present-day ruins. A narrative structure will be used to tell the complex history that took place there.

The references will then be used to develop photorealistic environments while harnessing photogrammetry and GIS technologies to bring innovative new teaching and research to the public.

Along with the commencement of the project, the studio is offering a variety of paid internships in a number of roles. Full details as well as ways to apply before February 18th can be done on the studios website.