Malawian comic Daliso Chaponda says his way of coping with the world is through humour. He does so with much irreverence while getting laughs out of sensitive and complex issues. Chaponda is convinced laughter has a better chance of shifting views. On an average day two to three strangers will come up to Daliso Chaponda asking for a selfie, that modern translation of autograph. For the time being he finds it delightful, as not that many people recognise him as the comedian and Britain’s Got Talent contestant. But this is surely about to change: he keeps adding more dates to his UK tour while still finding time to perform in Africa. Nomadic nation Chaponda says he is part of “this new nomadic nation” of “international children” who grew up in different countries. He was born in Zambia of Malawian parents. As his father was working for the United Nations, he lived in Somalia, Kenya, Zambia, Switzerland, Malawi, to name but a few. As an adult he spent some time in Canada and, since 2006, has been living in the United Kingdom. This exposure to different cultures makes him feel that he is part of both Western and African culture but at the same time, he says, he is a citizen of nowhere. “I realise how much I don’t fit in, in both places," he comments. "In England it is obvious: I am African, I have to keep reapplying for visas, I’ve got some African values. "But when I go home to Malawi, I feel even more of an outsider because I do not speak the vernacular language, I believe in equal rights for homosexuals, I am not as religious as some of the people there. So, I can’t say that I fit in that culture as well." Colonialism, old and new Chaponda’s humour touches on a wide range of topics but he has a talent for getting laughs out of sensitive issues such as colonialism or slavery. He talks about the troubled relations between the UK and Africa much the same way Francophone Africa talks about “La Françafrique”, a term used to describe the murky, incestuous relationship France entertains with its former African colonies. That is to say, after decolonisation, the colonial powers did not really leave. “Government can leave but money never leaves,” explains Chaponda. “If you own a mine, you are never leaving because that mine provides millions if not billions of potential earnings.” In his show Chaponda jokes about a current UK/Malawi deal, dating back to 1955, which allows British companies to send tax-free revenues back to the UK. He also cites a report on 101 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange which control resources in Africa worth one trillion US dollars. “Even when things are renegotiated, it is in small increments and it is rarely ever beneficial," he says. "Then you have people like [former Zimbabwean president Robert] Mugabe taking this absurd view to chase them out and repossess everything. And that doesn’t help because it creates its own brand of chaos.” Chaponda doesn’t lay the blame on one side only, he believes the Africans are also responsible for “this horrible situation because of the mismanagement and corruption happening in African governments”. Self-loathing The comedian has a way of making people laugh at more subtle and complex issues. One of his routines raises this notion that “white is better”. To illustrate this Chaponda tells the true story of his mother, who used to work as doctor in a hospital in Malawi, and how she was cast aside when a foreign white male doctor came to work at the same hospital. “All of the patients, who were predominantly black, queued for this white doctor because they perceived he was better, even though he didn’t have the experience in tropical diseases that my mother has because she grew up there and done her education there," he remembes. "Often the white doctor would then, ironically, ask my mother for a consult. It is