It is 9 in the evening and unlike the norm that people gather to watch soccer on TV, a curious crowd had gathered around a radio this time to listen to a local stand-up comedy.
The young and old discuss what the previous programme was about as they anticipate what the next will bring them.
Then, after a short while a Maasai man’s voice is relayed on the radio with some background church music as he attempts to repent his sins sending his audience in a thunderous laughter.
The imagery and symbolism that the narrator employs is so gripping that no one can afford to turn away during the 12-minute show.
As it turns out the narrator, Bakari Shabani Mwinyikondo Korokochi, is not even a Maasai but a young man from Bagamoyo, who is gifted at mimicking voice s and accents of different tribes in the country.
“I am not a Maasai, actually I am from Bagamoyo. I am just talented at imitating accents,” he says as he reaches out to answer a call from one of his fans.
According to Korokochi, it is a trade that he has learnt for the last 16 years which has taken him through different art groups.
His narrative techniques have by the number of calls and SMS indicated has won him plenty of admirers over the years.“On average we receive 500 calls, with many demanding to speak to the narrator plus some complementary messages,” he says.
A fact that most of his listeners admit: “This guy makes us laugh in the manner in which he portrays some of the serious issues,” says Ali Karim, a resident of Kinondoni.Ali Karim’s sentiments is shared by his other peers who say that the new programme Uncle Kochikochi has relieved them of the stress of watching the same things on TV.
As Robert Mwapembwa the creator of the show puts it, Uncle Kochikochi is a satirical radio programme that debuted two months ago after a long search for how to revive radio comedy which was non-existent in Tanzania.
“Since the death of Pwagu and Pwaguzi programmes in the late 1980s no one has dared to ventured into radio stand-up comedy a genre that has a great potential to entertain and educate the public,” says Mwapembwa who is also a cartoonist.
According to the Bi Mkora cartoonist, most people who did comedy on TV and radio did it as part of the local drama and not pure comedy as it was back in the days.However, this revival wasn’t easy as their initial plan to start the programme on both TV and radio didn’t materialise as they were faced with all sorts of shortages and there was no ready platform.
“The programme started two months ago but the process of its initiation started over nine months ago. We tried to figure out how we would try to work it out on radio and TV,” says Mwapembwa.
Their persistence was later to pay off as the national broadcaster TBC Taifa and later TBC FM accepted to broadcast the programmes but little did they know that the demand would grow to the level that it is now.
“We started off with a weekly programme, but due to the demand we now have daily programmes on both TBC Taifa and TBC FM,” he says.
As their popularity won them admirers, other radio stations too have joined the band wagon and to date there are four other stations that broadcast the radio atand-up comedy.
“As we speak there are other stations that currently broadcast our content such as Sauti radio in Mwanza, Country FM, Iringa, Safari FM, Mtwara and Boma-Hai radio in Kilimanjaro,” says Mwapembwa. The team which also includes Godfrey Mwapembwa (Gado), Freddy Saganda and Cleng Ng’atingwa see a bright future given the committed following that they have registered in the last two months.
This following, however, hasn’t come cheap as most of their fans now demand more airtime which according to Mwapembwa, they cannot afford.
“Our listeners want more than the 12 minutes that we currently offer them,” he says.
Despite the abundance of talent, training the characters is still a problem, which in the long run affects their production quality.
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