Today is a great day, waking up to see that Bill Masuku had released The Mandela Effect to his Patreon. Bill Masuku is the author of Captain South Africa, Razor-man, and has contributed to some great African and international comic and animation projects including Disney’s Iwaju. One of the biggest names in African comics, he is currently working on Runeless, which Disney Publishing Worldwide will publish. Bill Masuku’s Mandela Effect story is both a continuation and a spin-off from his Captain South Africa comic that has been running since 2018.
This new installment picks up right where issue 1(The Mandela Effect #1) left off, exploring the story’s science-fiction side without delay. But wait, what is the “Mandela Effect” and how does it tie into a superhero story about the multiverse?
The term “Mandela Effect” was first coined in 2009 by Fiona Broome when she created a website to detail her observance of the phenomenon. Broome was at a conference talking with other people about how she remembered the tragedy of former South African president Nelson Mandela’s death in a South African prison in the 1980s.
However, Nelson Mandela did not die in the 1980s in prison—he passed away in 2013. As Broome began to talk to other people about her memories, she learned that she was not alone. Others remembered seeing news coverage of his death as well as a speech by his widow.
Broome was shocked that such a large mass of people could remember the same identical event in such detail when it never happened. Encouraged by her book publisher, she began her website to discuss what she called the Mandela Effect and other incidents like it.
Masuku plays on this concept of divergent histories as the foundation for his story which already has a protagonist inspired by the ideals of Nelson Mandela. In the series, our heroine, Captain South Africa is unexpectedly flung from her version of Earth to a new place that is both distinctly familiar and jarringly different. The dead giveaway for her is a statue of “former President Winne Mandela”, which for everyone living on this side of reality, knows did not (maybe) happen.
Marvel and DC comics have been central in pushing the hypothetical multiverse concept to its upper limits with elseworld stories where Superman’s ship landed in Russia in the animated film “Superman Red Son” and in the Marvel animated series “What If…?” this is present-day retellings of comics and graphic novels that have existed inside the respective company’s libraries for decades. Even for seasoned comic book readers the mess of alternate days of the future past is hard to keep track of, an easy guide for new readers is in Marvel comics the central version of Earth we follow is numbered “Earth 616” and in DC Comics the much simpler “Earth 1” is home to the versions of all the heroes as we know them.
Rather than following in either company’s shadow, Masuku makes a bold new step to give his multiverse a fresh paint job – instead of numbers, the multiverse of the Mandela Effect series follows colours! He is playing on the idea of South Africa being called the Rainbow Nation as well as his artistic journey as a digital artist that inspired the use of hex codes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c56x1aj2CPA to make a range of colours represent different Earths.
Mild spoiler: the Earth where Captain South Africa comes from is one where she is moving from being a superhero to wanting to be elected as South Africa’s next president. And it is fitting, that the colour of her universe is called “Presidential Blue”! Honestly, I tend to read Bill Masuku comics with a Google tab ready to google random facts because of the level of sub-detail and research that goes into his stories.
Check out the full comic from Bill Masuku here. You can also follow Bill Masuku on his Patreon
