BIOGRAPHY OF Che Mandota (Jamil Sheriff)
Jamil Sheriff Chikakuda alias Che Mandota is a celebrated Malawian comedian who was born on 25th April in 1995 at St Luke’s Hospital in Zomba. His parents originally come from Machinga and Balaka.
Che Mandota has two siblings namely Yusufu Chikakuda (who is a lecturer at Mzuzu University) and Cassim Chikakuda (who is a medical professional in Lilongwe).
Academically, Che Mandota did all his primary education at Lilongwe Christian Private before starting his secondary education at Lilongwe Islamic High School. Due to naughty behaviour, he was expelled. Then, he went to Ntaja CDSS in Machinga. Thereafter, he also learnt at Zomba Islamic High School before writing his MSCE exams at Lunzu Secondary in Blantyre.
After obtaining his MSCE certificate, he did Clinical Medicine at Malawi College of Health Sciences (Blantyre Campus). After graduating, he started working for different private clinics. Later, he flew to Uganda where he obtained two degrees (Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery and Bachelor of Public Health). Recently, he has finalised his Master of Public Health in Uganda.
Artistically, Che Mandota started doing comedy in 2020 whilst in Uganda. Uganda was in Covid-19 lockdown and Mandota began shooting short comedy clips that he put on his WhatSapp status. Unexpectedly, some clips went viral on social media. He did those clips as one way managing stress that came because of romantic issues.
After the popularity of the short clips, Mandota ventured into serious shooting of comedy videos of more minutes.
Since 2020, Mandota has done more than 100 episodes of comedy. In those videos, Mandota has featured a number of renowned local and international comedians.
Though, he has done serious comedy videos for only three years, Mandota has been recognised with awards including MIAA Best Comedian (2020) and MIAA Best Short Film (Makolo Ena episode -2020). He was also named Comedian of the Year at the 2022 Maso Awards and MBC Entertainers of the Year Best Stage Dramatist (2023).
Apart from the awards, Mandota has also been recognised by being booked to perform at various big festivals in Malawi.
The nickname “Che Mandota” is the name that he suggested because of its joking ‘taste’.
”The name has no meaning. I just created it,” he says.
The 29-year-old Muslim is not married.
