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Since he first made a debut in Churchill Raw show, Briggedia General tells SDE that people take him as a comedian but he is not one. Born Francis Onono Odhiambo 31 years ago, the bubbly personality clarifies that he is a poet and an artist.
“I have never been a comedian. I don't do comedy either and people confuse me for a comedian since I got featured in comedy shows because I had pieces that had humour in them and the programs were on National television,” he says.
Now living in Texas, the South-Central Region of the United States, Briggedia General admits that the current global pandemic has truly altered the majority of his plans, especially coming back home, which was his priority.
According to him, he is currently stuck in a foreign land with an unwavering urge of coming back to his motherland.
“I miss home, you know, the regular lifestyle like buying mboga just along the stalls..., attending Swahili poetry gigs in the city… I miss githeri ya mbao,Uji ya 10bob and above all, I really miss my family and friends,” he says.
Briggedia has been in the states for close to three years now but among the memories that he holds so dear, especially from his last day at Churchill Raw, is his last performance before he left the country.
“My last performance that I did before I left the country with MC Jessy is one of the memories, I hold so close. It was an emotional roller-coaster,”
He vividly recalls how an idea suggested to him by a total stranger saw him go down the history books as the first-ever spoken word artist to be featured in the popular TV show.
“I used to perform spoken word poetry in open mics like Kwani Open Mic, One Mic Stand, Fatuma's Voice and many more, that way I got gigs and clients from the different audiences I performed for. So, there is one Friday, about seven years ago that I had a performance in Laico Regency, and it was an awesome show that consisted of musicians and poets, and I happened to be one of the spoken-word poets who were to perform...,” he narrates.
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During that particular event back in 2013, Briggedia’s skills and ability to perform as a comedian struck a DJ, whom, Briggedia confesses forgetting his name, but thankful they had a conversation that impacted his life.
“One of the DJs of whom I have clearly forgotten the name approached me and asked me if I have ever tried Churchill Show auditions, guess what, I looked at that guy like, "Hey man, do I look like a comedian," I wish you would see that on my face,..”
“To cut the long story short, I told him no, no, noo... and furthermore "my reasons are pretty clear, I'm not a comedian, I'm a poet, and Churchill Show is a Comedy Show" that’s what I told him. He was like, "Listen, your poetry has humour and you got some more skills on stage too... your art is unique and Churchill Show is always fishing for different types of art and unique styles, trust me you don't know what you are missing...." the conversation was really long and finally he told me the audition dates,” he recalls.
Convinced enough, Briggedia thought to himself that it wouldn’t hurt if he tried his luck.
“I went for the audition, the creatives liked the idea, and boom, the same week I was on the performance program for the show for the 1st time. I personally didn't know that was gonna happen, I grabbed the opportunity and that’s how I hit a national TV station for the first time in my life.”
“I was so happy and I never stopped. I became the first spoken-word artist to have been featured on Churchill show, and I thank God for that, and thanks to Daniel Ndambuki for that show,”
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Now stuck in Texas, the first poet to win the East African Spoken-Word Poetry Competition in 2017, follows whatever is happening at home.
He highlighted that cyberbullying has tremendously increased in the recent days and believes that if one becomes a victim, however, they should spin it around and make it work for them.
“Cyberbullying exists but what matters is how the bullied perceives the message. People will hate but that should not stop you from doing what you want to do. In fact, make good use of those haters and give them something to talk about,” he concludes.
