Lupita's elephant song comes full circle

In 1990, a little girl of six, then a pupil at Loreto Convent Msongari, neat in her uniform with hair combed back and some effort to make it straight and manageable, went up the stage to sing a song. In the audience, her proud parents watched and applauded as she performed in front of the school.

Most words of the song garbled in the way of a child but above all the words “put him back, where he belongs, the elephant...” ring clear. That performance, captured on video for all posterity.

Fast forward to 2015, the little girl is all grown up. She is now a huge movie star who has won the ultimate accolade in her profession with all the world in her thrall. She has been declared the world’s most beautiful woman and among the best dressed in the world, and right here just a few miles away from where it begun in on a chilly day in Nairobi it all comes full circle.

Lupita Nyong’o is back home, this time as she would go on to say, she knows her strengths and will not be singing this time but she will be lending her voice to the elephants.

GLAMOUR IN CONSERVATION

Looking every bit the naturalist, for the big reveal she wore a complex yet surprisingly simple navy and white wrap dress in tribal pattern with runched details paired with matching shoes with a gold-coloured heel. Her hair, a little afro with deliberate knots not too neat, yet not too shabby: like her dress, is an enigma.

Glasses in place she read her speech and becomes engagingly exuberant as she talks about her newest role, that of the Global Elephant for WildAid.

In partnership with WildAid, an organisations that seeks to glamorise conservancy by using celebrity power, Lupita may have found her true calling.

“Hello, feels really good to be back home. I am very honoured to speak on a topic so near and dear to my heart, the conservation and preservation of elephants,” she said.

She becomes animated as she talks of her time with the elephants.

“I like a girl who knows what she wants,” she says proudly of her name sake Lupita, a one year old calf at the Amboseli Trust who had trumpeted loudly in stubborn protest when her mother wouldn’t stop to feed her.

Lupita who has been on the face of numerous beauty magazines is also a brand ambassador for Lancôme, a luxury, beauty and cosmetic brand. She will be joining a starry cast of other WildAid ambassadors which includes Prince William, actor Jackie Chan, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and retired footballer David Beckham.

Peter Knight, Chief Executive Officer of WildAid is full of praise for Lupita, his organisation’s latest ambassador, “I have got to know Lupita over the last few days and from her personal commitment, dedication, professionalism, sincerity and intelligence we couldn’t ask for a better ambassador.”

For Lupita, it is not too late to come home and assures Kenyans that she has been away making us proud and has come back at the right time, not a moment to early, not too late.

"I need to be where things are happening and this has taken me away from home often. I have been away busy filming and doing stuff that makes Kenyans proud," she said.

HERE IN THE NOW

"I am proud of my Kenyan heritage and a part of that is the incredible wildlife haven that is in our care. I am happy I can now come back with a message and I believe this is an ordained moment now and not later. This is the right time."

Voted by Glamour Magazine the second best dressed woman, she says she is still a novice when it comes to fashion and may one day walk the red carpet in a Kenyan creation.

“The fashion side in my life is new and exciting my stylist and I are researching on Kenyan designers.”

The actress who has just concluded filming ‘The Queen of Katwe’ in Uganda still won’t comment on her role in the ‘Star Wars: Episode seven’. She also remains mum on her love life.

While famous for the quote that all dreams are valid, she says the life she has now is beyond anything she’d ever imagined.

 “I never dreamed I would be at the academy (Oscars), it was surreal, but I live in the moment. The good thing with being and actor is that you never play the same role twice.”

For elephants’ sake, we can only hope she doesn’t mean it.