Kenyan sweetheart clinches an Oscar

On Twitter feeds, weeks before the Oscars, Nigerian women of a variety of ages were buzzing about Lupita Nyong’o, the dark-skinned Kenyan beauty who starred in the hugely successful movie ’12 Years a Slave’. At hair salons in Abuja, Kaduna and even Lagos, they where drooling over the latest picture of the super-chic actress in […]

On Twitter feeds, weeks before the Oscars, Nigerian women of a variety of ages were buzzing about Lupita Nyong’o, the dark-skinned Kenyan beauty who starred in the hugely successful movie ’12 Years a Slave’. At hair salons in Abuja, Kaduna and even Lagos, they where drooling over the latest picture of the super-chic actress in one hot designer dress or the other, or even in casual jeans and white linen shirt. Across Africa, the story would prove to be the same, as well as in the United States, where she’s currently Hollywood’s darling.
Fast-forward to last weekend, when Nyong’o clinched the much-coveted award for Best Supporting Actress, the accolades began to pour in. “You are the pride of Africa,” Kenya’s president exclaimed on Twitter as he celebrated the win, even as the actress became the topic of the day on the country’s radio and TV stations a day after.
The 31-year-old Nyong’o was born in Mexico to Kenyan parents but was mostly raised in Kenya. She graduated from the prestigious Yale School of Drama and had appeared in many productions in her native Kenya before appearing alongside Brad Pitt in the most visible role she’s played so far. She had been considered a front-runner in a category that included heavyweights Jennifer Lawrence and Julia Roberts.
Her father recently spoke out on reports that she’s actually Mexican, not Kenyan. Peter Anyang Nyong’o said: “As her father, let me assure you that Lupita was born in Mexico while we were in political exile there during the dark days of the Moi regime. The family, including her, are all Kenyans.” Part of her acceptance speech last Sunday mirrored this perfectly, when she elatedly gushed: “No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.”
A Washington Post report said at a conference at the United Nations headquarters in Nairobi, more than 300 people broke out into applause after Wanjira Maathai — the daughter of the late Kenyan Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai — mentioned her mother and Nyong’o in the same sentence. “We all had hoped of course that she would win. Everybody feels a sudden attachment to her, she’s a Kenyan woman,” Maathai said in an interview later. “A lot of her work, a lot of her experience in film started in Kenya.”
Also, a Kenyan film critic Ogova Ondego criticized Kenya for not supporting the arts. Nyong’o’s father, who is a Kenyan senator, did not get any support from the government while developing her talent, Ondego said.
Kenyatta in Sunday’s statement said the government has made the promotion of arts a key pledge that must be delivered. He said many young Kenyans will have access to funding for artistic projects. “It is our intention that Lupita becomes the first of an endless line of Oscar nominees and winners from Africa and Kenya,” he said.
David Opondoe, the managing director of a Kenya-based theater company where Nyong’o performed earlier in her career, said the young thespian’s success will encourage many in in Kenya to embrace the arts. “It’s time for parents and government to see that this is not a pastime. It’s something you can do professionally and bring glory.” He said he first saw Nyongo on stage in the 2002 play called ‘There Goes The Bride’, which he also starred in. “At that time she was viewed as an amateur and she gave us, some of the professionals, a run for our money. She had her lines and was on point and I knew this person is passionate about acting,” he said. “We are going to celebrate this for a very long time,” Opondoe said.
Pre-Oscars, at another Hollywood event, Nyong’o delivered an emotional speech in which she confessed that as a young girl, she had wished her dark-hued skin would become lighter. “I got teased and taunted about my skin,” Nyong’o began. “My one prayer to God was that I would wake up lighter-skinned. The morning would come and I would be so excited about seeing my new skin that I would refuse to look down at myself until I was in front of the mirror because I wanted to see my face first. Every day I would feel the disappointment of being just as dark as the day before.”
It wasn’t until she discovered Sudanese British supermodel Alek Wek that she began to believe in her own beauty. “She was dark as night and was in all the magazines and on runways,” Nyong’o said. “My complexion had always been an obstacle to overcome. I couldn’t believe that people were embracing a woman who looked so much like me as beautiful. It was perplexing and I wanted to reject it because I had begun to enjoy the seduction of inadequacy. But a flower couldn’t help but bloom inside of me.”
Nyong’o said she would also like to inspire young women. “I hope that my presence on your screen and my face in magazines may lead you, young girls, on a beautiful journey,” she said. “That you will feel the validation of your external beauty, but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside.”