Lupita Nyong'o's Oscar win inspires Kenyans
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E-mail CRI, March 5, 2014
The Best Supporting Actress Oscar handed to Lupita Nyong'o has been celebrated across her native Kenya.
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Actress Lupita Nyong'o celebrates winning Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role award for "12 Years a Slave" during the Oscars at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, the United States, on March 2, 2014. [Xinhua] |
The 31-year-old actress is the first from the East African country to win an academy award. Her victory made headlines in all of Nairobi's papers and she even earned praise from President Uhuru Kenyatta who called her the "pride of Africa."
Nyong'o's acting career began in Kenya working with local performers. Angelo Kinyua, who made a short film with her in 2009 says he remembers Nyong'o as a performer with drive and passion. "In fact when she told me that she was going to Yale to study acting I was like in Kenya, that wasn't a career per se, especially in those years. It was something that you do on the side while you study for something for a better career like a lawyer or doctor or something, but it was that dedication and belief in her vocation we can call it, or her passion that you could tell that this is someone who is going to go far in her chosen field," said Kinyua.
In a country where a career in the arts is often frowned upon, Nyong'o's Oscar win is being celebrated as a watershed moment. For many people her title is a sign that they too can achieve the same success and perhaps bring other high profile awards to Kenya.
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