Young, dynamic, and devoted, he kept dreaming as he walked the streets where dreams are broken, where hopes are shattered. Momentarily, he looked into the heavens and wondered if there was a sliver of hope for him to trudge on. For Nigeria’s best actor, Sambasa Nzeribe, excelling in life and his arts was by no means a walk in the park. In winning the 2017 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA), he sees the hands of God, the unstinting support of his mother and the sacrifice of his church. But there is much more about the superstar that needs to be known. Ferdinand Ekechukwu writes
“Everybody in that group deserves to win,” Sambasa Nzeribe said. “Winning the award wasn’t the first time I was overwhelmed. I hear of how hard it is during screening like more than a hundred movies at the end six people are picked to be in a particular group.
“My God, I was picked among the legends; people that I grew up watching without knowing the definition of acting. Now, I am in the same space with them. I was overwhelmed.”
It appears Sambasa was relatively far from reckoning when the nominee list for the 2017 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA), was unveiled. Going by the other six nominees in the category, it seemed a tough contest to be pitched in a group made up of titans of the African cinema – half of who are his role models.
Having been nominated in a category of strong contenders was an achievement for him even if he did not clinch the much coveted award in the end. Not many thought he had even a slim chance of emerging as winner in the category.
Eventually when it was time to announce the winner, the audience looking petulant and filled with anxiety yearned to hear the winner’s name announced. There was the palpable suspended thrill in the Convention Centre of Eko Hotel and Suites.
As the name – and it was Sambasa Nzeribe – was announced the audience was ecstatic with celebration.
Sambasa is the 2017 AMVCA Best Actor Drama Movie/TV series for his role in the movie, Slow Country.
The tall and humble Nzeribe, in a blue jacket on printed multicoloured pants and white snickers, walked up stage.
“Thank you Jesus,” he said, repeatedly, in an indistinct voice.
At this point, his disposition seemed to have failed him as he struggled to breath out of excitement.
When he could finally speak, he said, “I never thought I would be in the same space with legends and gods of African cinema: Uncle Olu Jacobs, RMD, and Ramsey Nouah. I know it’s your ‘permission’ I win this. I want to greet you in a special way.”
In a rare display of respect and admiration, he prostrated before the trio.
Sambasa is a star with a heart for God; fluent and voracious with his craft. His humility is unmistakable.
Born Chiedozie Sixtus Nzeribe, the journey to limelight was not an easy one.
“The very beginning was when I lost my father. My mother she took refuge in the church, Saint Mary’s Catholic Church Isolo,” he recalled.
Her mother, a member of the Charismatic Renewal Prayer Group, earned a living teaching in an elementary school. She was also drama and choir teacher in the church. Like an obedient child, Sambasa was always in tow with his mother.
Not too long, tragedy struck again as he lost his mother. Sambasa and his other siblings – four of them – are now orphans.
Left with some family members and the church community, with little or no strict guidance on how to live, Sambasa turned to the streets.
“Basically, I lived like someone who wakes up in the morning and go into the streets loitering around,” he recalled.
Such was his predicament until one fateful day after activities with his group members of the Catholic Youth Organisation of Nigeria, Sambasa was on his way out of the church when some representatives of the Catholic Women Organisation of Saint Mary’s Catholic Church Isolo, stumbled on him. That moment marked the turning point in his life. Through the programme run by the Catholic women group called An Orphan Scholarship Scheme, they offered to support him should he decide to further his education.
He seized the opportunity for a university education and studied Creative Arts. By the structure of the scholarship scheme, the women provided him with books and paid his school fees, including assigning him to a guardian who happened to be an academician.
“They just did what they could; my family supported me too,” he said.
While in the university, he journeyed passionately, doing all he could do in his department until his third year, when by a stroke of luck, his path crossed with Eric Aghimien’s, the producer of the multiple award-winning movie, A Mile From Home.
While auditioning for the movie, which was his first opportunity to star in a film, having auditioned in some other areas, Eric had come to seek permission to use a place in the Creative Arts department for audition.
It happened that the space granted to the movie producer was where Sambasa had engaged some students in a tutorial on how to direct a movie as part of his practical in a course requirement for graduation.
“He (Eric Aghimien) saw me and then walked up to me and said, ‘will you like to be part of an audition?’ Hysterically, I said ‘yes, yes,’” he narrated.
Done with the students, he then joined in the audition process, and “read scripts and did monologue” and left. Later, he was called to play the role of “Suku”, a deadly character that fits perfectly what Eric the producer had searched for in Sangisha, Magodo, and Ketu areas of Lagos.
“A Mile From Home” turned out a great feat and was remarkable with 13 local and international awards that it was not reflect that it was a low-budget movie.
But it reminds Sambasa of the near-death experience that played out, like a scene from a thriller during the making of the movie; on his way back from location, after a late-night shoot, some security guards in the area had mistaken him and other colleagues for criminals.
They threatened to shoot them following a commotion that broke out as a colleague made to scamper. But for the timely intervention of someone around the scene that had identified them by their recording equipment.
“A Mile From Home wasn’t easy,” he said as he recounted challenges he faced. “We did it out of passion. Eric had a vision; and we had a vision of where we wanted to be. He wanted us to join our visions. Then, I was in my third year – combining acting with academic.”
The success of the movie coupled with determination and encouragements from friends spurred him on to go further. And just within a space of four years from his debut in 2013 as a rookie to date, Sambasa has featured in about 10 Nollywood movies, including: A Soldier’s Story; Road to Stardom; and Ojuju; all award-winning movies. He was also featured in Nigeria’s latest blockbuster movie, The Wedding Party, by Mo Abudu.
His outstanding performances in these movies within a short while have won him fans across the continent with positive reviews that placed him on a high pedestal in Nollywood. So far, he seems to have established himself as the contemporary Nollywood antagonist character in the eyes of movie buffs – the kind that could be likened to Hanks Anuku, Kelvin Ikaduba, Jayke Aernan, and Earnest Asuzu.
To Sambasa, it’s a notion driven by the performance in his breakthrough movie which producers and directors have connected with.
He said, “They forget that Sambasa is an actor and not a stereotype. And when you check the definition, an actor is that person that gets anything done. So for now, the job has to do with Sambasa playing the antagonist character. It is fine, it pays the bills. But that thing that has to do with passion in which I want to express my art by God’s grace has come.
“Winning Best Supporting Actor AMVCA 2016; also winning Best Supporting Actor Nigeria Entertainment Award 2016 in New York and now winning Best Actor AMVCA 2017, I think I can breathe now and express myself the way I would want to.”
As is typical of the young and talented actor, the conversation didn’t end without him giving a peek into his role in the upcoming flick, TATU The Movie. And a couple of projects he’s working on.
One is a monologue titled, No Wahala There’s Garri At Home, which is basically a reflection of the Nigerian society. The second is a musical drama coming up soon.
“Those are the things that people will see and understand that there’s no box for Sambasa to be placed in as actor,” he pointed out.
Like every young man with dreams of success growing up, Sambasa tried being a footballer and then thought of reading Business Administration. The challenge now is winning the Best Actor in Africa, which he acknowledged as the responsibility to deliver on any project.
