American-based-Kenyan comedian, now turned model, Elsa Majimbo has recounted how her fellow compatriots went out of their way to destroy her. The young talented Kenyan is one of the most exciting talents from the East African country who has quickly found her breakthrough in Hollywood.
Born in 2001, in Nairobi, Kenya, the 22-year-old quickly rose to fame in 2020 during COVID-19, when she started creating satirical monologs, which usually featured her eating potato chips, leaning back to a pillow and using a pair of tiny 1990’s sunglasses as a prop. Since going viral during quarantine, her life has never been the same, as she quickly became a successful story.
Despite being a proud African from Kenya, Elsa, while talking to OkayAfrica lamented about how Africans, embraced her talent but her country Kenya didn’t. Elsa says whenever Kenya is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind in ‘bullying’.
“When you’re glowing and growing, the one place you expect to get backing from is from home and that’s why I appreciate Africa a lot. They embraced me but Kenyans didn’t. Kenyans went out of their way to destroy me. Kenyans bullied me a lot. They bullied me to the point that I moved out of the country. I’ve been living in the states for three years now” – Elsa said.
She also iterated, that she has moved past the bullying she has received but didn’t feel compelled to sugarcoat her experience just because she is now on a global stage.
“I still have people that I love in Kenya. But the Kenyan population hasn’t been the most supportive and I’m not going to lie about that just because I’m on a global stage now”
Majimbo, also recounts how Kenyans campaigned against her, when she was nominated for E-Africa People’s Choice Awards. They went out of their way to campaign for others just so that she could lose, according to her.
Elsa’s experience is one that many black celebrities often go through. Some barely receive support from the black community and one would wonder whether it’s jealousy or familiarity.
Majimbo is just 22, but is rich and has her own home now in California, where she has gathered all her broken pieces to continually move forward.
However, she still has as her objective, plans to support the vulnerable population back in Africa. She also believes that Africa is an unmatched continent and in terms of resources and culture, but suffering is not a rarity in the continent where she is confident that only successful Africans can change the dynamics.
For some time now, she has been shying away from comedy given that she strongly embraced modeling and is now venturing into movies. She revealed that she is getting into movies with her first, expected to be available in theaters from September 2024.
