Benji: We ate ugali and sukuma wiki every day but I never thought we were poor

Benjamin ‘Benji’ Onyango, best known for his Blockbuster movie Tears of the Sun and God’s Not Dead, is a renowned Kenyan-born, Hollywood based actor. He will be soon releasing a web series called The Wives which was shot in Kenya recently. Buzz caught up with Benji for a chat.

Would you advice people to use social media as a platform to reach their audience?

Look at Gangnam Style, that wasn’t even a great song, I’m sorry. But the song made it! It was a huge hit. If he (singer) hadn’t put it on YouTube, he’d be nowhere. But he did. So yes, put your stuff out there, because you never know who is watching. There are lots of people who are making tons of money on YouTube, social media and all that. Yes, put it out there.

Any thoughts of ever going back and restoring your old neighborhood, Jericho?

If I became a really rich guy, I would start some foundation and I would go back to Jericho, not everywhere, just Jericho, because that’s where I came from. My old hood has changed, back in the day I remember the City Council cleaning the streets every week.

When kids broke the streets lights they would fix them within a day. It was amazing, but that does not exist anymore. It’s sad, so if one day I become a rich man I would bring a few friends from Hollywood and make sure all the work goes to Jericho.

Who is Benji and how was he growing up?

Second born of eight boys, you can imagine what my mother went through. We all had chores growing up and I had to learn how to cook because we had no girls. I can cook up a storm. They were tough days because we ate the same food every day except Saturdays. Saturday mum would throw in chapos and we would be like yes!

That’s why I’m crazy about chapatis because that was the only time we would break this monotony of eating ugali and sukuma wiki every day. It was rough but we didn’t realise we were poor because we ate every time. I never really thought that we were poor because we were a happy family. I’ve seen families that look good all together, but they are really dysfunctional.

How has your journey as an actor been?

I was an extra for a long, long time. Every time I went on set I would say I speak Swahili, but it never ever worked for me. They would just say “You speak Swahili, so what.” Then one day on the set of X-Files it worked. I was bumped from being an extra to a principal player in the show.

For the next three days I was the principle, taught everybody what to say in Swahili and all that. And that’s how I started. Then Tears of the Sun came and the rest of it just followed.

It was not an easy journey because in Tears of the Sun I didn’t have an agent, but I’m my daughter’s agent who tells everyone “Hey, my dad is also an actor”. So when I went to pick her up, the casting director asked me to read for a role in the movie. And that’s how I got Tears of the Sun. Then came God’s not Dead. And that opened other avenues for me.