I grew up as a bad girl: Kansiime

By Vasco Chaya

HARARE – Like a little goddess and dressed in a red dress, celebrated Ugandan comedienne Anne Kansiime left a fully packed auditorium at 7 Arts Theatre in Harare in stitches with her jokes which seemed to touch on every other facet of our lives.

She set the ball rolling by dancing to a gospel song My Jesus is Unconquerable as a way of expressing her gratitude to the Almighty for the job well done as the show was sold out two days before the show date.

While she was still on the dance floor, morale was too high in the house and virtually everyone was enjoying the music before she “rebuked” the Dj to stop the music as it was not a musical concert.

“Dj the show is not yours,” she said before turning to the auditorium, adding “we want to see all of you, those who are beautiful I will recognise you and those who are not we feel sorry for you,” she said amid ululations from the crowd.

“I am loved so much but what I see here in Zimbabwe is what I call show off…the people here are very beautiful,” she said.

Through humour and as the audience of 900 people were crying in laughter she raised pertinent issues of identity, cultural imperialism and lack of pride among Africans in general.

Kansiime, who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science, said she grew up a bad girl. “My mother loves me on condition that I am her daughter and she is surprised that some people love me so much considering that I grew up as a bad girl.

“You my ninjas (fans) love me so much, by the time I arrived at the airport — Harare International airport — though it was so hot, I was met with handsome potholes (on the roads) and vendors all over and that made me feel at home,” she said.

Kansiime, who shared the stage with talented local comedians Doc Vikela and Carl Joshua Ncube, said she was shocked by the love expressed to her by Zimbabweans.

She bemoaned the way western culture is being imposed on the African continent (cultural imperialism), adding that this has seen indigenous people losing their identity.

Kansiime cried foul over African women’s insatiable desire to enhance beauty through cosmetics and spotting artificial body parts in form of bums, eyebrows and weaves, including the Brazilian hair.

She jokingly said she was forced to apply cosmetics on her face by a local company that was interested in making her its brand ambassador.

“I do not like make-up but today I was forced to put it on by this company — Black Opal — and you know what happens when people are interested in making you their brand ambassador,” she said.

She added that ladies with natural hair are free “when they are taking a bath as compared to those with artificial hair who play hide and seek in shower bath as they fear to mess up their hairstyle.”

Kansiime revealed that her source of inspiration was her mother.

“My mother is a prayerful woman, actually she does not pray but she converses with God. She is like God’s secretary.

“I know whenever I am going she will tell God that there she is going and God will sort out things for me.

“Some people might wonder where I got all this content from but my mother is the source, when I want new content I simply pay her a visit,” she said.

Kansiime arrived in the country on Thursday last week and was performing in Harare as part of the Anne Kansiime World Tour 2015. On Friday she toured Oliver Mtukudzi’s Pakare Paye Arts Centre in Norton.

The reigning favourite comedian in the Nollywood and African People’s Choice Award winner commenced her career in showbiz at the age of 20 while still she was an undergraduate at Makerere University in Uganda. Daily News