aqumada

Comedian Kibebew Geda’s recent release, Wardya, has some of the funniest Ethiopian comedy skits I have ever seen. Kibebew, who is a household name in Ethiopia, has the uncanny ability to transform himself into the characters he portrays. His attention to detail makes the characters extremely believable. At times, the characters he portrays left me with the feeling that I had run into someone from my past. The way the characters wipe their faces, carry their stick, drink their  "Tela" etc make you realize that such nuances are as important as the accent or the clothing in the making of a character. Not only these skits are funny but they have, what I believe to be, intentionally constructed political and social messages.

 

In Wardya, Kibebew plays such characters as a Gurage Shop Keeper who is puzzled by his pregnant wife’s unusual requests, a man from the country side who is trying to make a living as a “woyala”, a Tigre sentry who goes beyond the call of duty to protect his boss’s interest, a man dreaming of winning the diversity lottery requesting his confession priest to pray for him etc. There is also a skit that compares the treatment of women in Ethiopia to that of western women. With no exceptions, I found all the skits to be hilarious. I thought that the skit about the Tigre sentry was not only intended to be funny but was also a metaphor to the way many Ethiopians feel about the current government [right or wrong]. Those who had watched the skit can perhaps comment on this. The one about the treatment of women makes you realize that we are a long way from achieving gender equality. My favorite character was a man from a country side working as a ‘woyala’. The man who was hired as a result of his relation to the owner of the ‘weyeyet’ drives the driver crazy due to his lack of understanding of his duties. The musical way he was calling out for customers, in particular, was extremely funny. The story of the guy who went to his confession priest to request a prayer to win the DV lottery has a striking resemblance to a poem that I had posted previously, yeneta. 

 

Kibebew is the funniest comedian I have seen since Dereje and Habte! You will not be disappointed purchasing Wardya.

 

Here is a discussion on Wardya on the ESAI forum...