Tsepiso Sathie Nzayo, a key figure in this year's Fingo Festival, is Grahamstown's own home-grown isiXhosa comedian and language activist.
Tsepiso Sathie Nzayo, a key figure in this year's Fingo Festival, is Grahamstown's own home-grown isiXhosa comedian and language activist.
Realising that indigenous languages are not taken seriously, he took on the challenge of promoting his home language, isiXhosa.
He started out by writing poetry in isiXhosa and then swapped to straight comedy.
"Even my poetry had humour and was entertaining. I couldn't finish two lines without the crowd laughing, so I decided to do stand-up."
Tsepiso matriculated from Nombulelo High School in 2002. After working for LoveLife, he returned to school four years later to upgrade his matric so he could enrol at Rhodes University.
He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Anthropology.
"Every society has a story has a story to tell. It is my duty as an artist to tell a story and I choose to tell mine by putting some humour on it," Nzayo said.
"I'm very passionate about languages, people asked me while I was at Rhodes, why do I study Xhosa? What am I going to achieve from it?"
"And I'd say, 'just wait and see'."
Nzayo started pursuing a comedy career in 2011. His first professional call-up was for 99% Xhosa comedy, in 2012.
This year he is on the shortlist for the Comic's Choice Awards.
"Tsepiso is one of a kind, so enjoy him. You will laugh at the joke in your sleep if you didn't get the joke [the first time]," said Xolile Madinda, fellow cultural activist and co-organiser of the Fingo Festival.
Nzayo worked for Radio Grahamstown in 2009 and 2010, doing a show to promote local artists presenting their craft in their home languages.
"I believe there are a lot of other things you can do in Xhosa without writing books," said Nzayo. "I am not the first one to do comedy in Xhosa – but I am one of the pioneers raising the flag of Xhosa comedy and I am very proud of it."
