Ugandan-Rwandan Actor Takes on Broadway

To be featured on New York’s famous theatre district, Broadway, is every actor’s dream. It is as big as it gets in the theatre world. And for Somi Kakoma, born of Uganda and Rwandan parents, that dream came true early this month when the production, ‘Jajja’s African Hair Braiding’, opened to the world at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

The show opened to high acclaim, and not least of all it was a New York Times Critics pick. Somi was understandably effusive in her reactions the morning after.

“A Broadway debut. A dream come true. A joyful night. And a NYT Critic’s Pick. Thank you Jocelyn Bioh and Whitney White. I’ll post more later. For now, only GRATITUDE,” she wrote on her Facebook page.

The reviews of the show were largely positive:

‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” … is a portrait that illustrates everything it takes for Black women, especially immigrants, to survive in this country. Amid the sacrifices and the tears, the play showcases the community these women build among themselves and how they care for each other when no one else will’, Aramide Tinubu, Variety

“… a buffet of delights,” Jesse Green, New York Times

“… wildly entertaining but overstuffed. The Harlem-set comedy drama is a delightful odeand visual feast, but efforts to cover too much ground are a hindrance,” Gloria Oladipo, The Guardian.

Somi acts as Jajja, owner of a hair braiding salon in Harlem, New York. The salon brings together an eclectic mix of women largely from West Africa in the business of dealing with black women’s hair.

“There’s a sizeable West African immigrant community in New York, mainly Harlem. And if you want to get your hair braided, that is where you go,” Somi said in an interview with CBS News, New York.

Written by Ghanaian-American playwright Jocelyn Bioh, and directed by Whitney White, the comedy covers a day in Jaja’s salon. There are braiders who bicker over clients, and showdowns galore between employees and entitled customers, many of whom are African-Americans.

There is also the coming wedding of Jajja to a white man, which brings the topics round to immigration and life in Trumps’ America.

Somi is the first actor with Ugandan roots to appear on Broadway, with Ntare Mwine having appeared off-Broadway with his one-man play ‘Biro’.

While the real Broadway is a street that runs the whole length of Manhattan island, it is a short stretch, the Theatre District, that is regarded as the Mecca of theatre. Home to over 40 theatres, many people believe the theatrical productions on Broadway are the best in the world.

So how did Somi get there? Her father, Iblaimu Kakoma, was a Rwandan refugee who grew up in Mityana, Uganda. There he met Somi’s mother, Elizabeth Nyarubona, a Mutooro who grew up in Hoima. The two got married and later moved to the US, where Kakoma was pursuing a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois. That was where Laura Audrey Kabasomi Akiiki was born. She identifies both as Ugandan and Rwandan.

Somi is better known as a jazz singer, and has performed all over the world with some of jazz’s greatest musicians. She has won several awards for her music, including the 2018 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album.

Her debut album ‘Red Soil in My Eyes’ was well received by critics, and the hit single ‘Ingele’ stayed in the Top 10 of the U.S. World Music Charts for several months. The 2009 album ‘If the Rains Come First’, featuring the late South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, debuted at no. 2 on Billboard's World Music Chart and no. 21 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart.

In 2013 she released the album ‘The Lagos Music Salon’, inspired by an 18-month sabbatical she took in Lagos, Nigeria. Featuring Grammy-winning musicians Angelique Kidjo and Common, it debuted at no.1 on US Jazz Charts. She was then dubbed by the media as the new Nina Simone.

Her 2020 'Holy Room - Live at Alte Oper', released on her own label Salon Africana, made Somi the first African woman to be nominated for a Grammy Award in the jazz category. She also second Ugandan to be nominated for a Grammy, after the Abayudaya in 2005 (Ugandan singer Eddy Kenzo would later also later became a nominee). The album also won the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album, Vocal.

Her first major outing as an actor came with the original play ‘Zenzile’, based on the life of the late South African singer Miriam Makeba. She both wrote the play, and the accompanying album,  Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba.