The aim for this petition is to hopefully get the attention of either Nintendo South Africa, Nintendo or Game Freak directly so so that they could consider making a next Pokemon Generation handheld video game be set in a South(ern) African inspired region (though of course not limited to). This of course would also flow over into the new Pokemon designs, which would probably be inspired by Southern African elements of wildlife, flowers and fauna and cultural objects native to the region. By "Southern Africa" I am referring to the countries of Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and South Africa (also sometimes included are The Democratic Rebublic of Congo and Tanzania). An extremely good alternative (or better choice) to South Africa would be Nigeria and greater Western African.

Why should Game Freak consider basing a future generation of Pokemon games in a Southern African inspired setting? Within Southern Africa you will find many cultures,languages, ethnic groups,clans, tribes along with diverse landscapes and wildlife. South Africa ,in particular, is a melting pot of cultural identities and many children who were born after the advent of democracy grew up with the original Indigo League anime in the late 90's. The Pokemon anime was relatively easy to access to the majority of children back then due to it being broadcast on "SABC2" and "e.tv." The current  generation of children grew up with the "Black and White" Pokemon games. South Africa is also home to the very first official African Pokemon League that was first established in 2011 and the first ever official Pokemon TCG tournament was held in 2012. However it should be noted that due to vast economic inequalities experienced within the country, not that many of the South African youth have or will ever be able to afford to play Pokemon related video games. For them; much of what this hypothetical Southern African inspired Pokemon region will be experienced through the eventual anime adaptation.

Understandably, when adapting the a game with such a setting into an anime may prove troublesome when considering the Japanese target audience. However with a focus on more diverse cities such as the likes of Cape Town,Tshwane (Pretoria), Johannesburg or Durban one could find a solution.

This is not a petition for a demand or for “change” (which does put this petition in an awkward standing considering the nature of this website). Instead it is just asking the dev’s at Game Freak to simply consider making a type of South(ern) African or Sub-Saharan inspired Pokemon region for the near or far future. The petition will succeed if it has simply made the dev’s consider the possibility; even if they ultimately decide to never undertake in making such a Pokemon region such as this.

Thank you for your time.

P.S: What inspired the making of this petition was seeing Southern Ndebele cultural art and clothing featured in a Japanese museum in the Aichi prefecture. Other big inspirations came from studying African history and anthropology along with seeing how Pokemon Sun and Moon was set in a Hawaii inspired region.