Serious Laugh Muj Ahmed
Muj Ahmed
[From our Archive published February 2009]
AfricanOz chats with comedian and refugee welfare worker Mujahid Ahmed – who’s solo comedy show ‘African Time’ premieres at Adelaide Fringe Festival in March 2009.
He’s Australia’s best known Sudanese stand-up comedian (“by default” he jokes), and regards himself as half African half Australian (“I mean I could easily run 100 metres in 11 seconds… but now I just can’t be bothered”) – but beneath the humour are hard-hitting messages influenced by his work with African refugees and encounters with racism.
While Adelaide-based comedian Mujahid Ahmed loves nothing more than a good laugh there’s a serious side to life as well.
By day he works as a refugee welfare worker helping African refugees resettle in Australia – a role where he’s seen too much irony for comfort. “I’ve seen African refugees put into remote Australian communities where they encounter extreme racist attitudes,” he says. “They then get told, ‘You guys can’t integrate’.”
He says services for new arrivals to Australia only last around six months – not enough time for people to learn how to properly navigate Australian systems and culture. One cultural difference is eye contact – in some African cultures, it is disrespectful to look people directly in the eye, but in Australian culture, it’s sometimes the opposite. Another is that Sudanese tend to use touch and stand close to people when communicating – something that Mujahid says “makes Aussies nervous”.
It takes awhile for people to learn things like you can’t haggle at Woolworths, you have to hail a bus and to show up on time for an appointment, and the huge cultural differences like the African concept of time, gender roles, family units.
Despite the challenges, Mujahid thrives on his ‘day job’ working with refugees. “It’s satisfying seeing people who arrived in Australia with nothing gradually getting jobs, starting their own business, putting their kids in schools, moving forward. “People who may have come from a background of conflict or instability appreciate they’re getting a 2nd chance in life, and all they want is a fresh start, to find a job and to help their families back home.”
Another thing he loves about his work is the African sense of humour, the ability to see the brighter side of life in tough times. “The Sudanese are very good at making fun of the status quo, and making a joke out of things. In Africa… there is joke tape, TV and theatre.”
It’s a culture he’s enjoyed since an early childhood in Sudan where he recalls “Life was good, peaceful and happy.”
Back then his father worked as a newspaper columnist in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, employing humour and political satire to grab people’s attention.
“It was this ability to make a point by being witty and not profane that influenced me,” says Mujahid. “I was never the funny guy in school. But as I got older I realised how much my dad’s dry sense of humour affected me.”
“But in Australia I’ve been able to make my humour much more hard hitting than my father, who eventually got in trouble for his own writing in Sudan.”
A 1980s military coup in Sudan saw President Bashir turn the country into a “mono culture and mono religion” where satirical writing was no longer tolerated.
The family fled to the United Arab Emirates where Mujahid spent much of his childhood “still happily surrounded by Sudanese people, Sudanese culture, Sudanese TV, and music.”
It’s a culture he missed when arriving in Australia as an international student in 2001 – particularly the Sudanese concepts of hospitality, friendship and respect of elders.
But, with the threat of military conscription hanging over his head, he never returned to Sudan, instead applying for permanent residency in Australia, while continuing his studies in Science (Psychology).
It was while studying, he realised his potential as a comedian. “Making speeches at university, people seemed to appreciate my humour,” he says.
Encouraged by positive feedback, he entered the Triple J Raw Comedy competition – “finishing in the top 4 three years in a row.” He’s also done a round of stand-up performances, culminating in his current ‘solo’ show that premieres at Adelaide Fringe Festival next month.
With 99.9% of his audiences tending to be “mainstream Anglo-Australians” Mujahid now feels an acceptance in his new home.
He says Australians are able to laugh at themselves, and he taps into this by using humour to help people see their own biases. He makes jokes targeting racism, and jokes that play on people’s generalisations about Africans.
He told one audience: “You’ve probably seen my mum around. She’s always in (Adelaide’s) River Torrens doing our laundry.
“She hates that joke by the way. Every time I do that joke we have to catch our own dinner.”
At an event promoting World Vision, he said, “I’d like to thank my sponsors… I know what you’re thinking. (I’m) not bad for $3 a day.”
And Mujahid has already adopted the Australian habit of shortening names, calling himself ‘Muj’.
It’s a lifetime theme of crossing cultures that will carry through to his upcoming show ‘Mujahid Ahmed is on African Time’ that looks at “everyday life and systems, the way people view things, and the clashes that occur when you carry both cultures.”
Thankfully, it won’t be the last we’ll hear from a man who’s not afraid to turn the touchy world of racial misunderstanding and cultural differences into one enormous belly laugh.
For more about Mujahid:
You Tube video: World Vision performance
Adelaide Fringe Festival booking
Interview on ABC’s PM program (March 07)
Interview on ABC’s Enough Rope (Andrew Denton) (Oct 07)
