The Puku Story Festival is just around the corner, and no one is more excited than local comedian and language activist Tsepiso Nyazo, who will be MC’ing the annual event for the second time.
The Puku Story Festival is just around the corner, and no one is more excited than local comedian and language activist Tsepiso Nyazo, who will be MC’ing the annual event for the second time.
Born, bred and building himself up as champion of ukugorana (or the “teasing game”) in Grahamstown, this funnyman is glad to be a part of the festival proceedings once again.
“I MCʼd the first festival a few years back,” he says. “Now that the festival has evolved, I feel good to be part of it. It's nice to be around like-minded people, to see and hear them share their stories and their experiences.”
After graduating with an Honours degree in African languages at Rhodes University, Nzayo knows all about sharing stories and experiences, particularly those that reflect daily life, and it is his desire to share “authentic stories” with his audiences through incorporating isiXhosa into his act.
He even has a few gems about Grahamstown that one can relate to.
“[In Grahamstown], we have water issues,” Nzayo jokes. “If Makana Municipality had a WhatsApp account, their last seen would say ʼlast seen Monday’.”
Like his favourite comedian Ndumiso Skhumba, Nyazo is unapologetic about doing his comedy in the vernacular.
“People understand better when you communicate with them in a language they know and understand. I am also using isiXhosa as a protest and also to show people that we can use our languages in high function domains.”
The isiXhosa language has always fascinated him; growing up with a love for reading and writing, he realised that there were – are, rather few isiXhosa contemporary writers. So, he pursued African languages because he wanted to represent modern-day young people who both love isiXhosa and can identify with the culture.
“Because language is evolving, I wanted to write, talk about and share our modern day experiences and resources like computers and cellphones, but sticking to language rules and conventions,” he says.
Whilst at Rhodes, Nzayo, who never thought of himself as the “class clown”, was interested in writing poetry, although his poems always contained comedic elements because he was “bored of angry, sad poetry.”
The switch to comedy came when a friend told him to take his Facebook status updates and turn them into jokes. Seeing people react to his humorous statuses, he explains, was the turning point.
In 2011, Nzayo performed in his one-man show Lost poet in a comedy show – it was his first time standing in front of people and making them laugh.
Then in 2012, he performed in Nam Ndiyakwazi (“I can also do it") as a self-introduction to comedy.
Since then, he has performed in and organised many shows around the Eastern Cape and has MCʼd events such as the Fingo Festival Gala Dinner and the Soul Clap Sessions Mandela Day celebrations.
Nzayo is also a freelancer for several outlets and departments as a language practitioner.
Although he does perform in English, Nzayo prefers isiXhosa as it allows him to be himself and he gets to play around with the language as he performs.
“Our language is rich and very colourful, so why should I deny people that,” he says.
With his unique brand of humour and love for the isiXhosa language, Nzayo is all set to bring some laughs and help shine a spotlight on children's literature at this year's festival.
