Jaja Bruce on stage. COURTESY PHOTOS
Seka alludes to laughter in Luganda as well as Kinyarwanda dialect. The ‘Seka Fest’ last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, comedy fans in Kigali, Rwanda were left wiping tears as they laughed their stress away.
Ugandan comedy stars were part of the rib-cracking squad. Agnes Akite, Madrat & Chico, Salvador, Jajja Bruce, Alex Muhangi and Teacher Mpamire represented at the festival that brings together comedian from the African continent.
One of the Ugandan revellers who attended the event, Bridget Nisha Ampaire, describes the show as ‘over board’.
“The package was way too more than enough for Kigali. The packages from Friday that saw the whole almost total ‘Comedy Store’ of Kampala on one stage in a land of a thousand hills with almost 90 per cent Luganda-speaking comedians was a risk but guess it was the best thing to realize that these two countries are here to stay as brothers and sisters,” she recounts.
She adds that the Rwandan audience shouted whenever every introduction of each comedian was made. “My high moment was when Teacher Mpamire came on. On the whole, everyone delivered to their best. Madrat and Chico, Akite and Jajja Bruce were all epic and the audience gave standing ovations to each of them.”
In its third year running, the fest also featured top continental comedians. Basket Mouth and Erick Omondi. To Akite, the experience of performing in Kigali has always been an amazing one.
“Rwanda loves Comedy. I enjoyed performing for them. This is my second time performing in Kigali. The first time was in 2015 when we had a show dubbed ‘Queens of Comedy Uganda Vs Kings of Comedy Rwanda’,” she explains.
The sought-after female comedian joked about Rwanda’s beautiful ladies as well as everyday life that the audience could relate to. Akite’s star sparked off in her role in the televised series, ‘The Hostel’, as Arach.
She became a stand-up comedian in 2014 and has since performed on platforms like Comedy Store, Comedy files and Rock Bar comedy. Speaking about his experience at the fest, Mendo says that it was an amazing experience performing before a receptive audience. Mendo plays two characters; President Museveni and Teacher Mpamire, parodying social and political events.
“The Kigali was so nice. Initially, I had second thoughts on how well our Luganda jokes would do but we were happy to see many people enjoy our jokes,” Mendo explains.
On the musical front, were Weasel, Charly Na Nina, of Owooma fame and Seka Rising Stars. The brainchild of the fest is Rwandan celebrated comedian, Arthur Nkusi.
He explains, “We had Basket Mouths who did ‘The son of Peter’, Salvador’s ‘Man from Ombokolo’, Eric Omondi’s ‘Untamed’ and Alex Muhangi’s ‘Comedy store’. We wanted to host those shows that they do in their countries, so in short, Seka Festival hosted four shows,” Nkusi explains.
The fetes were preceded by Rwandan comedian Michael Sengazi, another one-man show on 24th March. It was followed with ‘Comedy on the bus’ on March 29. Nkusi further explains that the festival is mainly created to take laughter to Kigali.
