Mujahid Ahmed is on African Time

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Mujahid Ahmed is on African Time
Presented by Nexus multicultural arts
@ Lion Arts Centre
5-6, 12-14, 19-21 Mar at 8pm. Tix $20/c$14
 
When I ask Mujahid Ahmed about his meteoric rise to top spot as Australia’s leading Sudanese stand-upcomic (by default), he admits to me that “getting intocomedy was quite a chance thing.”“I’m just a regular person, not necessarily funny,”Ahmed protests. “I saw a poster for Raw Comedy fouryears ago, and decided to just give it a shot.”Working by day as a youth worker with Sudaneserefugees, Ahmed explains that he wants to both educate and entertain his audiences about what itmeans to be Sudanese-Australian. “My shows areinteractive – at the end, I encourage people to get upand ask questions.”
 
Local newspapers have focused in on the Adelaide Sudanese community recently, following a very public outbreak of violence last November. Much of Ahmed’s routine pokes fun at the misinformation spread by the mass media with regard to the African diaspora – one particular joke goes along the lines of: “all this talk about African immigrants being diseased-ravished really flares up my AIDs.”
 
What makes it unique?
Without pausing for a moment, Ahmed explains that his act is, “A cultural and spiritual journey that takes audiences into the politics of everyday African life. There’s not many people I know of doing this kind of stuff.”
– by Connor O’Brien