( CNN ) Superheroes have always had a special place in my heart . I grew up in Zambia in the 1980s , an era that marked the beginning of the country 's worst economic crisis . My childhood memories are of a prolonged state of emergency that was characterized by acute food shortages and an economic decline where the basic needs of the average Zambian family were barely met . My siblings and I -- and our gang of friends from around the farmlands -- spent countless hours sitting on a deserted piggery wall , perfecting our extra-terrestrial code language . Our goal was to send an SOS out to the superheroes in the galaxies , and had our code language been refined enough to reach across the chasm of space , perhaps a spaceship would come down to Earth to save us from our dreary lives and carry us away into outer space . Searching for superheroes . Rewind to just a few years earlier -- in the mid to late 1970s and before the economic decline -- when superheroes like Superman , Spiderman , Batman and the Incredible Hulk were huge deals for anyone growing up . In our childhood eyes , these were powerful , all-embodying beings , and their brands were merchandised on T-shirts , caps , lunchboxes , toys , and just about everything . They influenced many aspects of the childhood experience to such an extent that I spent a lot of my formative years aspiring to become a superhero when I grew up . But then disillusionment set in . It dawned on me that I would never be a superhero seeing as most of them were male -- and all of them white . The frantic search for an alternative and relatable superhero that followed only resulted in more disillusionment . So many years later , in the year 2015 , it is somewhat bewildering to experience today the same disillusionment when I see so little representation of cultural minorities in popular media . This is a big deal to me . I am of that school of thought that believes that radio , television , film and other media of popular culture provide the symbols , myths and resources through which we constitute a common culture . Meet Ananiya . The danger of excluding cultural minorities from popular media is that this limited view starts to paint a constrained picture of what a person should look like , how they should behave and live to the negation of alternative experiences of being human . These deliberations are the basis for my graphic novel , `` The Revolutionist . '' A work in progress , `` The Revolutionist '' is set in the near future , on a satellite colony that is located a little off the orbit of mainland Earth , and administrated by a corporation . Social conformity in the interest of the collective is subliminally reinforced through symbolism and iconology , while the economy is purely corporate-driven . Exploitation of human by human , and robot by human gives rise to the resistance . Ananiya was only 13 years old when she joined the resistance . Now at 17 , she has recently been appointed as an agent in the Covert Operations Division . In the ensuing standoff where the Corporation increasingly maintains control with an ironclad fist it is not long before the resistance galvanizes into a full-blown revolution . As the masses are thrust into a state of emergency , Ananiya 's world is characterized by curfews , police raids , censorship and propaganda . Will the revolution overcome ? With this literary and visual offering , I describe a world that is both like -- and at the same time very much unlike -- our own . As a young , black female , my protagonist , Ananiya , is the most unlikely hero for the revolution . It would , indeed , be accurate to read her as the antithesis of the typical hero who more often than not is male , white , straight and privileged . Hey , maybe someday the nine-year old version of me can grow up to become a superhero after all . See Milumbe Haimbe 's work here . Read this : Modern African art in the spotlight . Read this : Why I 'm still sad about child marriage . Read this : Why Ebola is not Liberia 's 'single ' story . More from African Voices . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author .
Digital illustrator Batman challenges stereotypes and tackles the diversity gap through her work . Last May , she was one of the winners at the Dakar Biennale .