Fringe Dog meets Njambi McGrath

hallo ms njambi !!! you’re a brilliant comedian, a superb writer and an astute political commentator. you fearlessly follow the truth and explore difficult topics. i must therefore ask you a very serious question – do you have a dog ?!? 

Yesss! I do. I have a beautiful dachshund called Willow.

when did you and willow first meet ?!? 

Ha! It was late one night when my daughter arrived home with Willow. She’d come from a lovely family who had had a litter. My daughter asked me to sit down and put her on my lap. That’s when the magic happened. She stared at me with her big round eyes and I was captivated. We’ve been in love ever since. I can’t work out whether we are besties or I am her servant that carries her in a bag when she can’t bothered to walk. Either way, our relationship works.

Fringe Dog illustration by Lauren Hunter

what qualities of willow’s do you most admire ?!?

Her stubbornness! Willow is a real princess. If she doesn’t want to walk no one is making her. She is also very clear which way she wants to go or doesn’t want to go. She hates meat and prefers to copy what I eat. She loves eggs, chicken but her favourite meal is boiled egg, edamame beans, dates and sweet potato. Ya I know! She also has uncanny ability to make male sausage dogs cry because they fancy her and she doesn’t even acknowledge them. She’s a little heartbreaker but she knows her worth.

your new show ‘benevolence’ is all about giving – when i think of giving i think about crunchy biscuits and big belly rubs, but you’ve thought about giving in a deeper way: how would you describe your show ?!?

The word Africa is synonymous with charity. That’s how Africa has been positioned by the West. According to the West, African has evolved from savages, to being diseased and now just pathetic recipient of aid. Yet this is not the Africa I grew up in. So powerful is the propaganda about Africa, that when people in the West have leftovers whether food or clothes, the very first thought that comes to their mind is Africa. The West has an unhealthy obsession with giving to Africans that when Rwanda turned down unwanted clothes for the ecological and economic disaster they were in, they were threatened with withdrawal of aid. There’s a charity for every aspect of an African. It seems people in the West want to give Africans all and everything except visas. The only thing Africans want. Because people freak out at the thought of Africans coming to Europe and will let those same Africans down in the Med. So in this show I am exploring the concept of giving. Benevolence is a hilarious, thought provoking show.