I grew up in a small town. One of the predominant soundtracks to my life as a child was the sound of our neighbour’s radio playing loudly on Sunday mornings. It was on that radio that I first heard Nico Mbarga’s “Sweet Mother,” Fela Kuti’s “Lady,” and the popular Nigerian sketch comedies of “Gringory” and “Chief Zebrudaya.”
I was very small back then and I didn’t always exactly understand the nuances in the sketches, that made the adults around me laugh so heartily. All I remember was that the character Gringory was the caricatured impersonation of a not-so-smart servant who was always at fault and always answered his master with many variations of ‘Oga’ when he was called.
And also, on that same radio, I learned the song “Majunga give ma money” which late Jean Miche Kankan sang in one of his sketch comedies. I don’t remember where and when I first saw an image of Jean Miche Kankan, but I remember as kids, we would rub soot on our faces, wrap clothes and put them under our shirts, tuck in our trousers into our stockings and play-act J.M Kankan in the yards of our houses, right after which we would sing and dance to Zangalewa.
The influence of Jean Miche Kankan on the comedy scene of Cameroon didn’t just reflect on the lives of us little kids playing behind my aunty’s house. His influence is worthy of documentaries, a biopic, certainly, and university theses. To say that Kankan single-handedly ruled the comedy scene of Cameroon in the mid to late 80s and early the 90s is an understatement. The man was a comedy god.
I will not dare say there were no other brilliant or well-known comedians...