In my insular bubble of personal experience and mostly South African and North American media, I take it for granted that boardgames are a big deal. Obviously, this isn’t true for every country! I’m sorry that I haven’t heard of the Africa Boardgame Convention sooner, but now’s a good chance to spread the word and help out the global boardgaming community.
In 2016, Kenechukwu Ogbuagu, a 24-year-old boardgame designer from Nigeria, organised what was arguably the first ever West African boardgame convention. Now, Ogbuagu has taken to Indiegogo to fund the second edition of ABCon.
In addition to building a community of artists, designers, illustrators and gamers, Ogbuagu is hoping to break the stereotypes about tabletop gaming in Nigeria and other parts of Africa.
“Do you know most Nigerian parents wouldn’t want their children playing cards because they think it’s only for gambling? Oh yes! Do you know that most Nigerians do not know there are more than 7 boardgames in the world? This cracks me up when I see the look on their faces as I tell them there are literally millions of games”.
Ogbuagu wants to make ABCon absolutely free, so donations from the campaign will go towards the venue hire, logistics, advertising and covering costs for volunteers. They will also be filming a documentary of the convention, to show potential sponsors for future conventions what they can do.
You can donate to the Indiegogo campaign here, every bit helps. Otherwise, just help spread the word using #ABCon.
Hi, my name is Kenechukwu Ogbuagu. I am a 24 years old boardgame designer and publisher. I have just recently been approved as a boardgame designer on Boardgame Geek. People keep asking me what I see in boardgames. It’s not surprising knowing only about 6 boardgames exist in Nigeria.I got tired of trying to explain and so ABCon was born and we had what was called the 1st Con in West Africa. But I need your help to organize another edition. I need your help to tell people about our community.
Last Updated: July 11, 2017
