Fuh Dennis Zang: the story behind the popular comedian
By Hans Ngala
He is easily one of the most recognizable faces on Cameroonian social media platforms nowadays. Fuh Dennis Zang shot to fame in a matter of months after the release of a video in which he lamented why his fictional wife went and “spoiled” his name to his mother. He later became even more popular when he released another video when Cameroon was hosting the African Nations Cup earlier this year and he was calling on Samuel Etoo to become FECAFOOT president, which coincidentally happened. His more recent video on the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup in which he said “we go take that cup” ,a Pidgin phrase which means ‘the cup is ours’ made him even more famous in Anglophone Cameroonian circles.
Speaking with our reporter Hans Ngala, Dennis explains how he overcame a difficult childhood in which he was rejected by his own mother, taught himself how to read and write and has risen to become a household name in Cameroonian public discourse despite the challenges he faced. He spoke to our reporter over the phone.
The following is a transcript of the interview as recorded. Some parts have been edited for space and clarity:
CNA: Please introduce yourself and tell us about your childhood
Zang: I was born in Bamenda central town. I was brought to Ekonoa in the Southwest at the age of 2. So I grew up in Ekona all my life. I am 36 today, meaning that I have spent 34 years in Ekona Mbenge minus the 4 years that I have already spent now in Mile 15 due to the Crisis. I started acting in front of the camera in the year 1998. This was in a movie called Drastic Measure. I played the role of a slave in that movie. That movie was written, produced and directed by Enow Vahid Ashu.
In the year 2002, we again acted another movie called Satom and in 2011, we acted Pride and Prejudice. During that time, we didn’t have a Youtube channel which could allow us to post the movie online.
In 2016, I was doing business in Ekona Mbenge, I had a provision store but because of the war, I had to go and settle in Yaounde after government soldiers dragged me in the mud and collected over FCFA 400,000 from me. In early 2018, a friend of mine sent me a video showing that my shop had been looted empty by some hoodlums. I was brought down to zero. I then started selling cigarettes and managed to learn how to repair phones although it was really tough getting customers for the phone repairs. So I thought of the fact that I had a background in acting and so I took one of my android phones and started doing my TikTok with it. In November 2021 I posted the first video giving credit to Samuel Eto’o Fils and calling on people to vote for him to become FECAFOOT president, though this was purely for comical reasons but coincidentally, he actually became FECAFOOT president. I was so happy and all my videos during that period was congratulating Eto’o. So when it was now time for the African Nations Cup, I made the video “We go take that cup” and that’s how it has been going on.
CNA: You are now one of the most popular comedians online in Cameroon and have gotten to sign contracts as well. How do you feel about all this?
Zang: I will first have to give credit to some people of goodwill who sent me money via Mobile Money so as to support me. But talking of contracts, I can honestly tell you that I have not signed any contract with anybody. What you see on the internet claiming that I have signed deals is a scam. They are trying to scam me. They have scammed me because they are already selling their products with my image. I wrote there that I did not sign any endorsement contract with that man, but they muted my comments on that post. I don’t know why. Maybe they are looking for some kind of problem or whatever, I don’t know, because I don’t have any contract with anybody.
I had a concert yesterday, where I was invited by Chef Dawei it was a marvelous one and went very well. Everybody was excited to see me and chanting “We go take that cup!”. The excitement was just overwhelming.
CNA: So with this whole situation in Cameroon from the politics to the Crisis, how do you see your role as a comedian in the midst of all this?
Zang: I would not lie to you that this Crisis as it’s going on has not affected me because it has actually touched me. I have lost an elder brother. My immediate elder brother died in this Crisis and I can still tell you that as it goes on, there were people who were called to fight for their nation. It is not me, I am not a politician so all I can do is to ask God to have mercy on us.
I will just also implore the Head of State to call the children and say “Please my children, come down let’s talk”. I think just a word like that from the President can quench the flames of anger that are now burning. You know if your father tells you, “Please I understand your pain but let’s sort it out this way”, you must listen to your father. So that’s my suggestion to the State.
CNA: When you talk in your videos, you come across as someone who is very learned. What was your educational background like?
Zang: That one will marvel you because I didn’t really go to school that much. My story is almost an unbelievable one because I was neglected so much and I did almost everything by myself. It’s just by God’s grace that I can read and write. I was denied an education by my mother who rejected me in every area in life and even when I was struggling to go to school by myself, she would come and give false allegations against me so that I would be dismissed. However, one woman took it upon herself to bring me up, Madam Eposi Catherine. She took it upon herself to teach me and she would write on the board and ask me to come and read what she had written by force. At first I thought of it as torture but gradually I began to learn. After that, I started studying online and anything I saw, I would try to understand it academically and that’s how I developed a mind of my own. That’s how I got my own little knowledge which I have today.
CNA: So you don’t have your O’Levels yet or anything of the sort?
Zang: No no no. Let me not lie to you, I don’t have any credentials in life. But when I was studying online, I registered at a university in Germany and they gave me some courses which I passed all of them. They told me that if I want to get a diploma, I should come to Germany. But I knew that I was on my own so I didn’t want to start what I knew I couldn’t realistically finish since I am all by myself. Each time I bring up a project concerning me in the family, it is neglected so I couldn’t take a step like that. I just let go.
CNA: But are you planning to write the GCE at some point perhaps?
Zang: It’s never too late like they say, but I need a foundation where I can start learning and be comfortable. To learn, you must have a cool head. You cannot be handling everything by yourself and yet say you are learning. You will only be messing up. At a certain point, you will start having problems with teachers which is not good. So if I have a base to start from I can go back to school because there is nothing to it. It’s just to go and write.
In fact, there was a time I was in school but the teacher said I was boring him because I was always ahead of the other learners. By the time the teacher was dictating notes and waiting on the other students to copy, I would have long finished and it made the other students to feel incompetent. He even asked me to keep quiet or stay at home and come and just come and write the exams but how can I write an exam without the notes or adequate preparation? I believe that my online learning was very thorough because when it comes to academics, I cannot be cheated.
CNA: Where do you want to see your career in the next few years, maybe in 2 to 5 years from now?
Zang: As I mentioned in the beginning, I started out as an actor. I could cite some Nollywood actors such as Amaechi Mouanagor, who is a comedian and an actor. We also have Chiwetalu Agu who is also a comedian and an actor. So I am also aspiring to become an actor and a comedian. I have scripts that I have written and am hoping to become an actor in the near future as well. I just need to procure some equipment such as a laptop and a camera because going to people for them to produce your movies, they give you all sorts of conditions so if I get my own laptop and video camera, I will just go from there.
CNA: As someone who has braved the odds, what is your advice to young Cameroonians who feel hopeless and their main focus is just to travel overseas?
Zang: What I can tell young Cameroonians is that in life there will always be tussles and hardship, but they need to stay focused. Start from wherever you can start. Don’t complain about anything. Start with the little you have. Like me, I started doing comedy with an A16 itel phone and everybody kept wondering why I had such poor images and asked me why I couldn’t get a cameraman to do my videos for me. They discouraged me and told me it could never work and asked me to even stop it. But for me, when I am out to do something, I do it regardless of what people say. So you don’t get deterred by what people are saying except it is advice that you see to be useful. Even till now, I still do videos with a phone, no editing nothing. I just keep doing my thing. I don’t have the equipment but I cannot kill myself and I love comedy first of all. So you must love what you are doing. You don’t listen to people when you want to start. Just start. Even if you have a huge capital and you want to start something, there will always be someone who will ask you “Do you think this thing can work?”. Also, don’t let someone else’s life to influence you. There are no shortcuts in life. I started with one follower but today I have 18,000. So my encouragement to youths out there is to start from somewhere. Pursue life. Life is very hard.
