Star comedian Oday back in Mogadishu with a hint for a debut performance

Somalia’s prominent comedian, Oday Abdulle, one of the last surviving most celebrated artists has come back to Mogadishu after five years in Uganda, where he has been in exile.

The career comedian left the country at the height of the devastating war between government and Alshabab fighters in Mogadishu just before the group was dislodged from the capital. In a hilarious interview today, Oday talked at length about his career spanning from 1980s to date and promised a come back on Somali airwaves.

“I have been away for five years in Kampala, Uganda, it was like a prison, because I love my country too much. Thanks God I am back,” said Abdulle.

“I not afraid of Alshabab, I  say what is true,” said the comedian usually mocks the group’s activities in his acting.

Abdulle said he was in the process of migrating to the ‘Western World’. “The embassies usually rejects someone who seeks family reunion or has been sponsored when his case doesn’t add up, but I am the one who gave them a ‘rejection’, retorted Oday to the amusement of many viewers.

Abdulle started his performance in 1979 with civil obedience force Guuldawasha band  of Halgan Band , which was later incorporated into Military Band of Horsed and in 1981 he was sent to the Music Academy in Mogadishu where he picked  the mastery of the violin.

He appeared in many films and stage plays at the National Theatre. However, after the fall of the government in 1991, Abdulle went freelance featuring in a number of films including his famous role as a bushman.

In the film, his first time visit to the city was comical and tragic in equal measure. His sister served him spaghetti (a delicacy unheard of in the bush) but instead of using the fork and spoon as it should be, he pulled out his dagger to rid himself the agony of having to struggle with the wriggling Italian cuisine to the amazement and embarrassment of his sister.

Asked whether he was in love, the Somali National TV presenter could not escape Abdulle’s comical swipe when the comedian frankly responded in the affirmative that the female presenter had indeed stolen the better of his heart and a proposal to the same effect was in order.

His performances are still being aired on National Television.

Somalia had a strong cinema industry but actors are either in exile, too old to act or have died and young talent is yet to be exploited.

But the current minister of information Mohamed Abdi Hayir is credited for trying to revive the industry.

Goobjoog News