An Aspiring Star Is Born

For starters, my debut came about on a very humble stage. I was born in a tiny village in Malawi, East Africa. The most sophisticated birthing equipment in the small room where I came into the world was a wooden chair with a hole in the middle of it. That's where my mother sat as she awaited my arrival.

Even in utero, I had a flair for the dramatic. My entrance kept my mother and the midwife on the edges of their seats. You see, my umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck, not once but twice. What had once been my lifeline almost became my noose. Adding to the dramatic tension was the fact that I was silent for the first moments of my life. Not one wail until I was doused in very warm and then cold water. My birth was just one of the daunting odds I would overcome in a land where mothers have as many as twenty children because so many babies die.

My first big break came when I emigrated with my family from my beautiful homeland to America, the land of opportunity. We came out of Africa thanks to a network television, program called This Is Your Life. Every week the program would feature someone of note, mainly from the world of show business. It highlighted the principal guest's life by surprising him or her with real-life costars and supporting players from that person's past. When my mother, Dr. Alice Princess Msumba Siwundhla, was chosen to be on the program it was the first time This Is Your Life had reached outside America for its star subject.

My umame (an African word for mother) had been born into privilege and nobility. Her father, grandfather, and greatgrandfather (and so on) were African chiefs. After a blissful childhood growing up in Johannesburg, South Africa, tragedy struck. The happy young girl watched both her parents die from natural illnesses. To compound the heartache, villagers robbed umame, her sister Tillie, and brother Cameron of their inheritance. They even stole the blanket that covered the body of my grandfather. My mother could have given up at this crisis point, but she knew there was something more out there for her. At a time when women were discouraged from going to school, she was at the very top of the class. In fact, she was the top student of the entire nation. An impressive feat any way you look at it, but especially impressive for a woman, in those days, in those cultures.

My mother's academic achievements and the fact that she survived and thrived in spite of personal tragedy attracted the attention of missionary Josephine Curmington Edwards. She in turn alerted This Is Your Life producer and host Ralph Edwards. As a result of my mother's star turn, I made my television debut in her arms. She effectively set the stage for me to follow my own aspirations.

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