Renowned media personality, actress, model, emcee, and fashionista Malaika Tendo Tenshi says she chose to drop her family name ‘Nnyanzi’ because she needed to be independent and to protect her father’s name from the controversies in her life.
Malaika is the daughter of Owek. Nuwa Wamala Nnyanzi – a respected visual artist and consultant and vice chairperson of the National Arts and Cultural Crafts Association of Uganda (NACCAU).
While appearing on Ruth Kalibbala Bwanika’s YouTube channel, Malaika revealed that her father is very prominent and she did not want to ruin his name.
My name is Malaika Tendo Tenshi. I dropped the Nnyanzi name because it is my father’s name. He is a very big and powerful man who has worked hard for his name so I didn’t want to spoil that in my things.
She was also often confused with Stella Nnyanzi early on in her career in the media and she wanted to be identified differently.
Also, in my initial days working in the media, there was confusion when people would call me Stella Nnyanzi so I decided to let the name go.
She also believes the name “Malaika” (translated as “Angel”) is powerful on its own and that she is happy that it bases her identity on the Lord. She also added the Japanese version of the name, Tenshi.
Josh Ruby is an Editor with high interest and knowledge in the Ugandan entertainment space, an industry he has been actively part of since 2010. Leads to breaking stories are welcome! More by Josh Ruby
