Whether you’re a new graduate or career changer, starting a career takes a lot of motivation and energy. If you’re confident and know what you want, taking that first step is easy. However, sometimes things come to us unexpectedly. A surprise offer means you need to do some serious thinking—and fast. And the fear of something so random might be overwhelming. In Beatrice Mukakamanzi’s case, while passing by film directors at Rafiki Club in Nyamirambo where she currently lives, she was asked to help. The directors needed an actress for a short movie meant to sensitise youth on abstinence from HIV. The actress for the part did not show up and so the directors asked Mukakamanzi to fill in. In the movie, she was supposed to test a young girl for HIV and give her counselling after testing positive for the virus. Mukakamanzi in a movie scene. /Courtesy photo “After finding out that she was positive for the virus, I assured her that she was neither the first nor the last, and that life will continue afterwards. “Meanwhile, I didn’t have any script so everything I was saying was coming from my mind,” she recalls. The directors were impressed with her expression and asked that she continue to work with them. The director of that short movie then recommended her to Ben Claude, a famous movie director in Kigali. Despite the advancement in her career, never had she ever dreamt of acting. “I had never aspired to become an actress, because in my childhood, there were no local movies, no TVs or any other multimedia professions,” she says. From there, she adds, she moved to act in a local movie, Inkubito ya Nyamunsi which she claims opened doors to Rwandan cinema, even though she still had a lot to learn. “As a beginner, I had a number of challenges, but I kept learning throughout the movie. As a result, I was invited to act in other movies,” she says. The movies include; Siryo Herezo, Umwana w’Ikirara, Giramata, Intare y’Ingore, a series, among many others that are streamlined on different social media platforms. When Weekender visited her, she was preparing for a new movie, Ejo Si Kera in which she is expected to be cast. The grandmother of five also acted in Umwanzi w’Urukundo, alongside Rwandan female rapper, Young Grace. She acted as her parent teaching her Rwandan traditional norms. She says that it is among the movies she enjoyed because it contained an important message for young people to learn. Mukakamanzi adds that acting can help one earn a decent wage, but emphasises that accountability is crucial, because, “you can have a job today, but none tomorrow.” She is famous for diversifying her roles in different movies, which she considers routine. She says that it is all in the interest of the message you want to deliver. “I can act different roles, as a nice person or cruel. In one movie, I acted as a cruel parent, who burnt my own child with a flat iron as a form of punishment,” she recalls. “It is okay, as long as you have a message that you want to deliver because what I act does not represent my personality, I just follow the script given. The 59-old-actress receiving an award in Kigali “The only role I cannot perform is one that devalues me as a Rwandan, or one that is against the Rwandan traditional views and ethics,” she adds. She asserts that she is able to act as a vulnerable individual, a rich person, a leader, or military personnel, among others. In her career, Mukakamanzi has scooped different awards like Isango Na Muzika’s Best Actress award and Rwanda Movie Awards’ People’s Choice Actress, among others. Despite the move, she has encountered a number of setbacks due to her age in the career. “Most of my friends and relatives did not understand what I was doing at my age. They started discouraging me, but that did not stop me from going on,” she says. Her take on current movies The mother of six points out that movies with sexual content are on the rise, and expresses worries that they affect the younger generation. “It is an educational threat against our growing generation, kids born in the era of technology are good at navigating different platforms and when they indulge in such content, they are mentally affected,” Mukakamanzi says.
