When I call Kanyombya to remind him of our interview, he replies promptly: “Sorry, can I call you back? I’m in my mom’s banana plantation.”

It is an answer typical of the man we know as a funny actor on TV, yet in real life Katankore Noljoli, which is his real name, is not so much different. This guy is a class comedian, and humor is just in his blood. He is a jolly man who seems to laugh more than he talks, and puts you immediately at ease even if you meet him for the first time.

Kanyombya: “My nickname could as well have been Schwarzenegger.” (courtesy photo)

Before he started acting professionally in 2002 with the CSK group, he was a military man. “I was a soldier but now I’m demobilized; I love working for my community.”

Acting has always been his calling, though, and he started doing it back in his primary school days, and he was already very humorous then; whenever he was absent either at home or at school, everybody would miss him.

If he would have to switch jobs, Kanyombya would choose to be a doctor. “I’m good at lots of things, and if I hadn’t been an actor I would have been a doctor. I was a doctor in the army and if it’s not for acting I would love to continue that profession, because I like protecting people from harm.”

He does not have any regrets, though, and stresses that he is as happy as he could wish to be. “I love my country and my fellow Rwandans. The fact that I do something which makes everybody happy, that’s enough for me.”

Although Kanyombya is naturally funny, he says that acting is not a joke. “When you act you have to prove and show people that it’s real, even when it’s not. I know that I’m funny but everyone can be funny if they decide. We act to earn a living, so we have to convince the audience to pay for our services, that’s why I have to be funny enough.”

Being funny also makes people like him, and Kanyombya says that he hasn’t had any problems with anyone about the things he does. “There’s nothing I do that irritates those around me. My wife loves me .I’m very respectful of other people and I hate anyone who takes me for granted just because I’m funny while acting. People in the street sometimes call me in a very impolite way and they expect me to stop; I don’t like that.”

Proud to be Rwandan

He may be funny and all that, but Kanyombya has another side which you don’t get to see on TV. As the interview proceeds, I realize that Kanyombya is not only short tempered but sensitive and vulnerable too. He is very reluctant to talk about his private life, and declines to comment on whether he is a homely person. “What do you want me to say, that I stay in the forest most of the time? Ok I love being around people, but I can go home any time I want. I’m the chief in my home, if I decide to get home at six in the morning, that’s it.”

Despite this protectiveness, he admits that he fears HIV/AIDS. “God help me, I don’t want to get AIDS, I dread the disease,” he says, adding that having been in contact with many AIDS patients, he thinks it the worst misfortune that could possibly befall him.

He also says he wouldn’t like to live in any other country. “Being a Rwandan makes me proud. I don’t know where else I could live happily, except in my country with my people.”

People have sometimes been wondering why Kanyombya does not feature in some of the plays of the CSK theater group. The actor explains that this is due to the fact that there are internal disagreements, and that in fact they have split. “We have two groups at the moment, we separated because some people wanted to exploit us, by taking more than they deserve and trying to cheat others. That’s why you don’t see me in some of the plays.”

Nevertheless, Kanyombya says that they won’t stop their work, even if someone tries to destabilize them. “Much as it hurts that we started as a team but have separated, we can’t give up. We will continue what we started and by 2020, we hope to have made it in the Diaspora, because I believe that we have what it takes.”

Related articles:

Borrowing someone's life, and enjoying it