Ernest Napoleon: The Bongo Magician

Ernest Napoleon co-producer and lead actor of award-winning film 'Going Bongo', talks to Rose Kwamboka

What is Going Bongo film about?

Inspired by a real life story, the film is about a British surgeon, Dr Berger, who lands a job in Los Angeles. Coerced by his fiancée, he mistakenly volunteers to work in Africa for a month.

He heads to Tanzania to work as a volunteer doctor at a poorly-run public hospital; understaffed, with limited supplies, no electricity, overcrowded, the list is endless. The story is also about someone trying to find his calling in life.

What does ‘Going Bongo’ mean?

It has two meanings. Bongo is the christened name for Dar es salaam, Tanzania where part of the film was shot, hence translates to going to Tanzania.

Also Bongo was derived from the Kiswahili word ‘Ubongo’ which means brain and thus can be translated to going crazy as a result of the transformation that Dr Berger goes through.

This is your first feature film. Why the decision to do an African film?

I deeply feel the need for Africans to tell their own stories. It is about time we took over from the west telling our stories where they present Africa as a place of hunger, corruptions, drug abuse, poor governance, war, droughts and floods and further suggest that nothing good can come out of Africa.

 I choose to tell the story of Africa, because only then can African issues be articulated with accuracy.

You worked with different professionals in different countries in the making of the film. What was that like?

Every country has its own differences starting with the culture. In Tanzania, you are likely to miss a sunrise shoot because the cast on set is having breakfast and their culture forbids you to hurry them up. Still in Tanzania, I could not find a film make-up artiste.

The ones I interacted with did the glamorous kind of make-up for magazines and not the more subtle and artistic kind used in film. I actually had to get someone from Kenya. Same goes for lighting.

How do you juggle being a writer, actor and producer?

I do not and it is the worst thing about me. There never seems to be enough hours in a day to do it all. Sometimes your loved ones suffer as a result, so I try mix work with pleasure so I do not have to take time off. It is the reason I do not have a TV in my house.

How did you get into film?

Film found me, for since I could remember, I would re-enact scenes from movies during my play time. When I was three, I featured in a Christmas play dubbed New Year’s in the Old Soviet Union but I did not step in film class and neither would my parents allow me if that topic on ‘film school’ ever came up.

 In fact, I have a bachelor’s degree in computer programming and a masters in computer networking. That’s how deep my love for computers go. All the while, I would help my friends and colleagues make their own short films and TV pilots.

So does your degree in computer engineering go to waste?

Not really. With the current domination of technology in film, I bring my computer skills to play in fusing the two and probably deliver better quality as a result.

Seeing you are well traveled, exactly where did you grow up?

I was born in Moscow, Russia to a Tanzanian father and Russian mother though my sister and I lived with my grandmother as my mother went about working and doing her master’s degree.

We moved to Tanzania two years later. I currently stay in Stockholm, with my wife whom I met in high school and our two children aged six and two. I move back and forth from there to USA and Tanzania on work projects. I enjoy the coastal areas, especially the breathtaking Zanzibar.

Future plans?

I am playing the lead role in the movie ‘From Freetown’, which is set for release in 2016. I am also writing a play about an African footballer who loses everything and has to play in a local football team to make ends meet.