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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nWhen Tumi was younger, she wished she had darker skin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When Skhumba visits Tumi\u2019s family home, her Oupa tells him that when Tumi was younger, she once smeared black polish all over her body and her face. Tumi doesn\u2019t deny it. \u201cThe funny thing is, a few years later, I got sunburnt because I was trying to be browner,\u201d she admits to Skhumba. \u201cI was such a yellowbone.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n During Apartheid, Tumi\u2019s parents were arrested for treason<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tumi and Skhumba discuss the bad old days of Apartheid, when Bloemfontein was in South Africa but Thaba \u2018Nchu was part of Bophuthatswana – and both Tumi\u2019s parents were arrested for treason. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy dad tried to overthrow the Bophuthatswana government,\u201d Tumi tells Skhumba. \u201cBecause remember there was that Apartheid puppet, Mangope. My dad was an underground ANC member, working in the police force, so somebody sold him out. The next time I saw him, he was in jail. I was speaking to him through the glass, on a phone. It was heart-breaking, man. That\u2019s when I learned about Apartheid properly.\u201d Her mother brought her to Bloemfontein to stay with her grandparents \u2018for stability\u2019 – the right choice since she was promptly arrested on her return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tumi originally wanted to be an actress, not a comedian<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I came to Joburg and went to Wits to study, I knew I wanted to be an actor,\u201d she tells Skhumba. \u201cBut because I\u2019m chubby – I don\u2019t have a conventional look – it was hard to get acting work. The hot chicks were getting the work. And yes, there were some talented chicks getting the work but if I look at my age group it was mostly about how you look than whether you have the talent or not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She changed her focus to writing, which she still loves, but then comedy hit. \u201cI was like: this is what I want to do,\u201d she tells Skhumba. \u201cThis is giving me what I want: I got to write, I got to act, I got to have my own audience right there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Part of what she loves about comedy is its ability to speak uncomfortable truths. \u201cWhen you take comedy and you use it to talk about some of these things, you\u2019re calling a spade a spade. I\u2019ve made a joke of it, so you\u2019re laughing, but you\u2019re going, \u2018Ey but it\u2019s true.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tumi has three kids (despite what Skhumba says)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe\u2019s got nine or fifteen children,\u201d Skhumba tells us. \u201cTumi was pregnant while she was pregnant. I think she was two months and nine months pregnant at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the other reason Tumi agreed to take part in Trippin With Skhumba. \u201cIt\u2019s a chance for Skhumba to get to know me, beyond all the thousands of children he thinks I have.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n We ask her how many children she really has? \u201cI have three children, but for some reason, when I had just met Skhumba, I was pregnant with my second child, and the next time I saw him I was pregnant with my third. It feels like every time we bump into each other I\u2019m pregnant.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tumi\u2019s mother made her who she is<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tumi takes Skhumba to visit her mother\u2019s grave in the Free State. \u201cMy home visits are incomplete without this visit,\u201d says Tumi, who dedicated her 2018 book, And Then Mama Said\u2026, to her mother. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy mother made me who I am, man,\u201d Tumi tells Skhumba. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m an extension of her. If my mom had been born now, I feel like I\u2019m pretty much a picture of what she could\u2019ve been and would\u2019ve been. My mother was outspoken; my mother was a pioneer in many respects; my mother was fearless.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n