From jobless to 'professional mourner': Migori man ekes living from crying

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

And that is the way life has been for one Daniel Odhiambo, a man who started out as a 'professional mourner' to earn a living before putting his talent to better use in the entertainment industry.

Wananchi Reporting caught up with him to hear his life story.

“I believe everybody is special and different in their own way, there is nothing as expensive as using your unique feature unconstructively,” said Daniel Odhiambo alias Jamdoz. 

Odhiambo was born in 1993 in Ragana Oruba ward in Migori county to a family of eight children.

His father died in the year 2001 and his mother, who had been a stay at home mother, had to take over as the bread winner.

Odhiambo said he completed his primary school education in Ragana primary school in 2007 and joined Kangeso boys’ secondary school and graduated in 2012. He joined Migori Institute college, where he did community health. Upon finishing school, he was not able to secure a job. And that is when he had to think of how to make ends meet.

Odhiambo said he has always been humorous.

"Through my childhood, I always made people laugh and thought about joining the entertainment industry as a comedian. I knew there were already many comedians so it would be difficult for me to get noticed, so I decided to try something else,” he said.

In 2014, a local radio station organised a talent competition in Migori county for youths. Odhiambo went to participate in this event.

“I was given the chance and I used it accordingly, I cried like I was mourning my late father, and people loved it so they laughed,” he added.

His neighbour who spent almost all of his life in Nairobi and had no relationship with villagers died a few months after the competition.

“In Luo culture, mourning is a big deal and it is usually done by the relatives who lived in the village.  For this man, the family knew there would be no one to mourn him. The family of the late heard about Odhiambo and how he performed in the talent show event so they hired him. Together with his five friends, they performed perfectly well and people liked it. 

“From there I knew that I was good at this activity so I went leaving my contacts in every mortuary in Migori county for people to contact me in case they needed my services,” he added.

He and others got gigs almost every week across Nyanza and western region.

He got famous and did interviews with different media houses.

In 2019, he participated in East Africa's got talent, but did not succeed.

He got some tokens of appreciation and that’s how he got capital to start his MPesa shop and cyber cafe in Migori.

After his participation in EA got talent, he became recognisable and started getting invites to do  professional mourning. At this time, he had recruited eleven more youths in his group.

“COVID-19 led to the collapse of our job but it opened some doors,” he said.

According to the government directives at the time, only 15 people were allowed to attend a burial. Odhiambo and his friends lost their job.

However, that is when he started his YouTube channel. He started content creation with his friends. He uploaded his mourning videos which received several views.

“It took me some time to grow in terms of subscribers but eventually it happened. I am earning from YouTube and now doing different types of content which viewers like and I'm running my businesses as well,” he added. 

“I want to advise my fellow youths to use their talent constructively, and look at the positive side of every situation. Change their challenges to opportunities. They should choose their friends well. It is their friends who can break them or build them. Giving up is not a solution, they should be patient in everything they do. Consistency pays and drugs are not the solution,” he said.