Muvhango: twenty years on
DRAMA SERIES: EXECUTIVE PRODUCER DUMA KA NDLOVU TELLS HIS AFRICAN STORY
‘Black people wanted to wake up and find that television is the mirror of who they are.’
After 20 fruitful years of managing to leave Mzansi viewers on the edge of their seats one episode after the next with intriguing drama and an innovative yet realistic storyline, executive producer Duma Ka Ndlovu says he thanks South Africans, God and those who came before him for choosing him as one of the people to tell an African story with SABC2’s Muvhango.
“From day one I didn’t come with a proposal. I sat down with someone and said this is my story and I was told to bring episodes,” he said.
“We had wanted to tell an African story. When we came back from exile we watched the scope of television in South Africa. It was sad because there was no African story – and we wondered what kind of country we were living in.”
Ndlovu says a lot of stories that were watched at the time did nothing to embrace being African, hence were not a reflection of African people.
“There was one story in particular I will never forget. I lived in America for about 15 years and I had never watched The Bold and the Beautiful, not even once. I came to South Africa and black people were rushing home to watch it. I asked myself what was wrong with that picture,” he said.
For him, this and the absurd request that people used to make of asking him to record American television series Dallas for them in the United States are some of the reasons why he wanted to tell his black story through Muvhango so passionately.
“When I got an opportunity to sit down with the people at the SABC, I told them that black people want to see themselves; they want to hear black people on television speaking their own languages; black people want to see their aunts, uncles, cousins and even that drunkard at the corner of the street on TV. Black people wanted to wake up and find that television is the mirror reflecting who they are.”
Ndlovu says with the soapie, they wanted to give the African woman the power that she rightfully deserves.
“We wanted to start a conversation among us as Africans. We wanted to give power to the rural woman,” he said, adding that “African stories are the way to go,” as people like Netflix are coming to Africa, and BBC has been in Africa all these years.
“It’s time for us Africans to sell our content to the rest of the world,” he said, explaining that this is what they at Word of Mouth are looking into doing.
“The 20-year journey with the SABC has given us that opportunity. We have grown as a company. We have grown in an atmosphere where, unfortunately, we as South Africans are not very good at propping each other up.”
The executive producer thanked Sindi Dlathu among many, who is one of the two people that has been with the soapie since its inception.
“I really want to thank Sindi for her generous spirit, for being who she is. She has been an epitome of what a star should be. She is not a celebrity. She has conducted herself in a way that every mother would like her daughter to conduct herself.”
Ndlovu says he believes that the values Muvhango stands for are some of the reasons why the soapie has managed to survive this long.
“We are not going to have people kissing in Muvhango because it’s unnecessary,” he said. He says viewers will also never spot a person drinking alcohol or smoking in the soapie.