Chihombori breaks silence

and the “Mukadota Family”.
Throughout the drama series, Toby Waters was at the receiving end of Gringo’s antics.
Besides being the writer of the drama series, Enock Chihombori, who acted as Toby Waters often left the audience in stitches because of his gullibility.
The three-time National Merit Awards  winner, Chihombori recently opened up to Herald Entertainment on his aspirations, inspiration, fears and frustrations.
Chihombori, who is now based in Botswana, said he was putting final touches to a complementary film of the “Gringo” drama series, entitled “Gringo Film”.
“This film is expected to leave film lovers in stitches because it is hilarious.
“It is in its final stages and engineers are now working on the sound,” said the veteran actor.
Though it may sound strange, Chihombori gets inspiration from watching cartoons.
“I have never had any direct influence from any particular person but instead cartoons inspired me more than anyone or anything,” said Chihombori.
“Until today, I still have ambitions of doing a successful cartoon book after the failure of my first project in 1998 titled ‘Gringo Auya’,” he added.
The pencil-slim playwright and actor said he “accidentally” found himself acting.
“I never had dreams for acting but my dream was to do cartoons and I was not born a writer as well but I had ideas. For my first project in 1998, the ‘Gringo’ drama series I initially tried to get writers to write for me.
“But I soon realised I was going around in circles and I had to teach myself how to write a script using old scripts I borrowed from Yanai Pasvuura, who is a veteran actor and the rest is history,” Chihombori said.
Chihombori said his breakthrough came in 1989 when his Gringo cartoons were first published in the vernacular Kwayedza newspaper.
“In 1997 I wrote the first ‘Gringo’ series and it was produced in 1998 that’s when the ball began to roll for me,” he added.
Chihombori added that his childhood obsessions spurred him to draw cartoons.
“As a child I was also fond of reading a lot of cartoon books and these books inspired me to try my hand in drawing cartoons.
“This was not a difficult choice since I already enjoyed drawing. I was not very good at drawing cartoons, so I had to practise a lot.
“I still think I am not as good as the other guys who do cartoons. I am very good at drawing portraits though. But my interest was in cartoons while at school,” Chihombori narrated.
The road has been arduous for the talented cartoonist, lack of resources and financial constraints had also crippled some of his projects.
“The biggest challenges are financial resources and equipment. If we had these, we would be producing more independent films and dramas on a regular basis,” bemoaned Chihombori.
In a career that spans several decades, Chihombori recalls what is arguably the darkest hour in his career.
“It was in 1998 when the first publisher I approached took my cartoons and we produced a cartoon book titled “Gringo Auya” but the book was not a financial success as I had thought it would.
“Not many copies were printed. The publisher just vanished into thin air,” he narrated.
Born in Zambia in 1971, Enock Chihombori has three national awards under his belt. He never pursued art as a subject, joined a school group called Shona Culture Club which got him involved in various cultural activities which included what were to become his passion — drama and acting.
It was while in Form 6, that Enock developed a cartoon character.