“Good Evening Africa,” the African arts showcase that convenes once a month at the Ethiopian Diamond restaurant in Edgewater, was about to hold its first stand-up comedy night. The African hosts–immigrants from Zimbabwe, Congo, Nigeria, Angola, and Sudan–were going to trade jokes with four members of Second City’s all-African-American Words improv ensemble.
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Ibe had invited the Words ensemble, which regularly does outreach performances across the city, because he likes to mix Africans and African-Americans on the same bill. Ensemble director Dionna Griffin was intrigued by the chance to match wits–she’s always considered African storytelling the ancestor of African-American stand-up. “That is a direct link to the African tradition, where it was the community sharing stories, sharing histories, and adding on to that,” she says. “In America we just put a different name on it.”
Minutes before showtime Ibe set up a microphone on the restaurant’s step-high stage. The wall behind him was hung with woven baskets, masks, paintings of misty waterfalls. It was ten o’clock, long past dinnertime, so the lights were faint and most of the tables had been abandoned.
The man laughed even harder.
When it was the Africans’ turn, Kabuika Kamunga carried a bowl of water to the stage and set it on a chair. She said she was going to tell a story about her life after fleeing Congo (then known as Zaire) because her family had spoken against the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. “I am a refugee,” she said. Her voice was musical and melancholy, and she smiled vaguely.
Freitas’s life hasn’t been filled with funny stories. He lost his wife and child in the war and couldn’t even bury them for fear of land mines. After coming to America, this former teacher and aid worker for CARE International campaigned against mines and established SHAREcircle, which funds relief efforts in Angola. Yet Freitas found a joke in his grim past.
“You’re still too uptight,” Griffin responded. “You need to loosen up, even though it’s a blind date.”
