20-05-2025
Online or on stage, Central African comics try to break through
BANGUI - Under a mango tree in a residential area of Bangui, the filming of "Problem Booth" is under way, a series of skits imagined by Lemuel Luther-King Godonam and a few fellow comedians.
Filming, then uploading the videos to build a following is an uphill struggle in the Central African Republic, a war-scarred country that is one of the world's poorest and where internet penetration is just 15.5 percent.
But Godonam, a 19-year-old high school student, is undeterred. As "Luther LG" he leads the troupe, playing the harassed owner of a shop dealing with problem customers and the girl selling peanuts next door.
He just wants to make a name for himself.
"It's a new thing for us," he said, explaining the lack of scripts and dialogue, and the use of a simple sign as scenery.
"You can count comedians here on the fingers of one hand," he added.
AFP | PATRICK MEINHARDT
"Godonam said he wants to take comedy from the CAR "to another level" and win fame outside the country.
That is why the young performers, aged between 19 and 24, speak in French rather than Sango, one of the country's official languages.
"It's not just Central Africans who follow me," said Godonam, who dreams of being as popular as Cameroonians, Ivorians or Beninese on YouTube, TikTok or Instagram.
"Foreigners also need to understand what's being said, so I have to do it in French."
Posting the videos online however is a challenge.
"There isn't good internet connection here, which stops me from posting on certain networks," said one of the other comedians, Jessie Pavelle.
"It stops me from getting noticed."
Sometimes, the 2,000 CFA francs ($3.40) that 19-year-old Pavelle puts on her phone as credit is used up even before her video is online.
Such problems mean they cannot rely on an online presence alone.
But the Central African capital is sorely lacking in the kind of comedy venues or events that Ivory Coast, a launchpad for comedians, enjoys.
AFP | Issouf SANOGO
Niger's Mamane, whose "very, very democratic Republic of Gondwana" mocks dictatorial tendencies in Africa, has run the "Abidjan: capital of laughter" festival for the last 10 years.
Ivory Coast's economic capital also boasts filming locations, where production companies create comedy shows, bars where stand-up nights are held regularly -- and even, in recent years, comedy schools.
"Ivory Coast is the country of comedy," Mamane told AFP as he recorded his "Parliament of Laughter" show, broadcast on French channel Canal+.
"You've just got to arrive at the airport in Abidjan and get off the plane... the Ivorian sense of humour is everywhere, it's become legendary and spread across west Africa and all of central Africa."
Mamane said he could have spent his career in France. But he wanted to come back to help develop professional comedy in Africa.
