with stand-up comedians in South Sudan

Popcorn vendors fired up their machines long before the first spectators arrived. Every Thursday at the end of the afternoon, between 1,500 and 2,000 people flock from all over the South Sudanese capital, Juba, to take their seats inside the large amphitheater of the Nyakuron Cultural Center and attend the Kilkilu Ana Comedy Show, the weekly rendezvous of South Sudanese stand-up comedians.

Kilkilu Ana, which means “tickle me” in local Arabic, has become a veritable breeding ground for laughter in South Sudan. ” There was absolutely nothing like it when we created it,” says its founder, Isaac Lumori, 43, a musician known as McLumoex, a pioneer of entertainment in the youngest country in the world. The adventure begins in 2014, a few months after the December 2013 fighting that devastated Juba and marked the start of a civil war in South Sudan. ” We wanted to try to make those who had lost loved ones in the violence smile “recalls the one who finances his artistic activities thanks to his job as a telecommunications engineer.

“I’d rather be hungry than miss the show”

“At first, nobody understood what we wanted to do and why we were asking people to pay for laughs”he recalls, moved, sitting on a bench in the outdoor bar of the Nyakuron Cultural Center, which overlooks the park of this unique performance hall in Juba, built in the 1970s. Sometimes people threw bottles at me, people shouted “We don’t want to laugh, we want to dance!” remembers Emmanuel Dulley, Lotole by his stage name, one of the actors who emerged thanks to Kilkilu Ana.

To attract spectators, McLumoex had the idea of ​​inserting sketches between the performances of another show he launched: the contemporary dance competition Alabu Dance, created in 2016 and huge popular success. Gradually, the public’s taste for comedy and these artists of a new genre asserts itself. ” We have spotted and trained around twenty stand-up comedians over the years, and some of them now make a very good living from this profession. We are building the entertainment industry in South Sudan from the ground up », enthuses McLumoex.

Sequined clothes, shiny chains, thick sunglasses… For some young regular spectators, coming to the Kilkilu Ana Comedy Show is an opportunity to put on their most extravagant outfits. Others go more incognito, like Christine Simon, her sister Sarah and their friend Diana Helen, all unconditional Kilkilu Ana fans. ” We have been coming every Thursday for two years, nothing can make us miss it! », assures Christine Simon, afro cut and big smile with the teeth of happiness. ” I save my lunch money to pay for my transport and the entrance to the show, in all it costs me around 2,000 South Sudanese pounds [3,3 euros]she says. I’d rather be hungry than miss the show, because life outside is very difficult. When I come here, I know that I will totally get rid of my stress! On is all together, we are united, we feel good. »

It must be said that the atmosphere, once the show has started, is at the same time electric, unleashed and good-natured. The social mix is ​​obvious. We laugh, we dance, we shout when a joke is too funny or too provocative. Like when comedian Lodiong, a tall, slender guy, decked out in a long wig and high heels, makes fun of the overly suggestive dance style of girls from the suburbs of Juba… backed up by a demonstration. Another humorist named Talento recalls his childhood years in the village, under the orders of an authoritarian mother forcing him to do work on the farm. Another, Comedian Fly, quips on ” pastors who preach peace in south sudan while their followers do the opposite, in a country where violence continues despite the signing of a peace agreement in 2018.

“Laughter can change society”

The show is a space of freedom. “Today we can talk about politicians, corruption, domestic violence or even the different tribes and the way their members behave”, details Isaac Lumori, alias McLumoex, conceding however that certain subjects remain out of bounds. ” The killings, the events that we can read about in the newspapers, we can’t laugh at them, but we can refer to them before leaving on a joke “, he explains.

Wokil Jesh Commando, whose real name is Kuech Deng Atem, a very popular stand-up comedian in Juba, revealed by Kilkilu Ana, discovered his talent by recounting his experience as a child soldier. ” I was making jokes at school about what I had seen of the behavior of soldiers in the barracks,” he confides. Since then, he has made jokes aimed at law enforcement his specialty. ” It got me in trouble, he explains. But now people understand that I’m not doing anything wrong, I’m talking about the things that are happening, and that need to change.. »

Because he is convinced: “Laughter can change society. When I’m on stage, I feel like I’m helping to build this country”. He wants as proof of this the fact that“Before, people got angry and could become violent” when they didn’t like a joke or felt targeted“but now they are happier he notes. A sign for him that South Sudan is changing, slowly healing.”