Interrogating: Yvonne Orji’s “Momma I Made It”
Regardless of how you come to live in the United States, you can always tell when a child is born to immigrants. There’s a particular set of values and comedy naturally bestowed on children born to families who escaped African struggles and poverty in the United States.
Momma I Made It interrogates being Nigerian and American through Yvonne Orji’s eye. As should be expected, it’s her special. She opens up her set with a joke about the Nigerian scammer stereotype and continues to recall stories of her home country and how she’s come to navigate being Nigerian in America. Across the board, there are elements that every African child, particularly the third culture kids, can relate to their own upbringings. Personally, my South African mother was never the type to insist on me studying medicine, engineering, or something “professional” and “respectable.” Nevertheless, I distinctly recall questions of “Where is the other 7%” after I brought home 93% test grades. By the way, that’s an A in the US.
Damilola Oyedele raised an interesting point for brittle paper. “The problem with the fluidity of being Nigerian and American (or anything else) at a time like this is that it shows clearly those who are from us but not really of us: those whose Nigerianness is convenient, forced, and performative,” she writes. Oyedele questions the quality of the representation of Nigerians in Western media. More than anything, the crux of her argument is that there are so many voices and narratives within Nigeria, yet oftentimes it is the stereotypical and exaggerated narratives that become the poster Nigerian existence.
Not too long ago, and to this day, Africans in the US have been called “African booty scratchers.” The term, “is an insulting phrase that American blacks reserve for African immigrants in America,” writes Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Yvonne briefly touches on this in her 2020 comedy special, Momma I Made It.
While watching Momma I Made It, as a South African-American, born and raised in the United States, but now living in South Africa, so much of this show is relatable. It’s funny. It induces a hearty “ha ha”. Yet, at the same time, I consider the fact that she’s performing these jokes to Americans…people who have an already warped version of Africa.
Theirs is a poverty stricken, war torn, borderless mass of land they can only relate to as “the Motherland”. While African countries are often poverty stricken, war torn, and devoid of strong border security, it isn’t fair for such singular depictions. For Africans, it is not a motherland, in the same way, even in our poverty, there is joy, in our social unrest, there is peace, and in our welcoming borders, there is security. Showing one side of Africa via a media machine like HBO can be considered reckless.
At the same time, as previously mentioned, she shared her experience. So maybe the issue is not that she shared it at all, but that there aren’t enough representations of the various social landscapes of African nations. Perhaps, like Oyedele raised, it’s equally important for more robust African oriented content to be shared by Western media.
In close, is Yvonne Orji an entertaining comic? Of course. Undeniably so. Her delivery and overall stage presence makes her an enjoyable sight to see. As a black African woman, seeing her command the stage after her 7/8 years of working to get there is inspiring. On the question of whether or not Momma I Made It is funny, we can’t deny that you’ll laugh. It is important, however, to remember what you’re laughing at and why you’re amused.
