Can You See Us? star's mum says she can relate with movie

President Hakainde Hichilema with Thabo watching the movie Can You See Us? Image credit: State House.

Thabo stars as a Joseph in the advocacy movie.

Thabo Kaamba on the red carpet during the movie's premier on Wednesday. Image credit: Henry Mboyi 

JACK ZIMBA 

CAN You See Us? Of course no-one could not have noticed Thabo Kaamba. 

The 12-year-old was a dazzling image on the red carpet at Ster Kinekor, Manda Hill, as she welcomed President Hakainde Hichilema and as she sat next to him at the back of the cinema hall watching herself on the big screen as Joseph - a boy living with albinism. 

Actually many who saw her on the red carpet thought she looked like an angel. 

“She was everybody’s angel,” says her mother Kayani Kaamba, who could not hide her excitement seeing her daughter cast in the advocacy movie Can You See Us? 

“I was so excited. That experience was unexplainable,” she says. "I was excited to see my daughter acting in a great movie like that one.” 

And yet the role Thabo plays as Joseph in the movie, to a large extent, mirrors her own life. 

Just like Joseph, Thabo was also rejected by her father after she was born. 

And Kayani, herself, could also draw parallels between some of the things depicted in the movie and the things that actually happened in her own life. 

“I felt very emotional because I went through most of the things that Chama went through. 

Chama is Joseph’s mother in the movie, a role played very well by Ruth Jule. 

 “I was depressed, because the moment the nurses touched her [little Thabo], they asked me if anyone in my family had the condition [albinism]. But the moment they asked me, I realised that there was something wrong with my baby. I became a bit depressed,” she says. 

“They gave me my baby and she was just all white,” she says. 

She still remembers the words that Thabo’s father said when he went to see her and the baby. 

“I’m disappointed,” he said. 

He never returned to see the child again, ever. 

But Kayani says from the moment Thabo was born, she loved her, but she also talks about the shame she felt. Kayani says she would cover her baby up in shawls to hide her when friends visited or when she had to go to the market. 

“I was ashamed to tell them that my baby actually lives with albinism,” she says. 

But soon she would accept Thabo as “a special child”. 

Thabo herself thinks of herself as a special child. And perhaps she really is a special child; Thabo exudes confidence. 

“We are all people and we were made by one God,” she says. 

And about her little moment with Bally, she said: “I felt nice, it was a great experience.” 

So what did they chat about as they sat next to each other in the cinema? 

“He was asking me how I managed to act as a boy,” she says. “I told him it just came. He also asked me how I felt on set. I told him it was fun,” says Thabo. 

Although her mother says when she was told to cut her long hair so she could play the boy role, she cried. 

“She didn’t want to cut her hair. I had to cut my own hair in solidarity,” she says. 

And what does Thabo, herself, think about the movie? 

“It’s an inspiring movie, it will help a lot of people,” she says. 

Thabo is a bright student in seventh grade and her target is to get 750 points and above, and go to Munali Girls. Her dream is to become a doctor. 

At her school, Thabo is also a prefect who usually takes leading roles such as reading Bible verses during assembly. 

And after seeing the movie, Kayani had to fall in love with the son she never had, Joseph. 

 “I love his emotions; when he is excited, he’s really excited and when he’s mourning he's really mourning,” she says. 

“Thabo has really made me proud; it can only be God,” she says. 

Can You See Us? is the brainchild of Lawrence Thompson, the de facto godfather of the Zambian movie industry.