Visions of blood & death
MaMlambo watches in horror as the ancestors’ warnings come true in a church massacre.
MaMlambo (Gugu Gumede) has been a little distracted lately thanks to former lover Pastor Mdletshe (Glen Gabela) getting flirty again and taking her out to lunch on Thursday 1 February. But the ancestors have an ominous warning. About what? Well, that isn’t exactly clear. “MaMlambo consults on a day-to- day basis, so she’s always hearing from the ancestors. But it’s been a long time since she’s gotten anything of this nature from them, especially when it pertains to people from the church. That is really nervewracking,” says Gugu. And on Friday 2 February, MaMlambo tells Smangele (Sihle Ndaba) that there’s a dark cloud overhead. “Not everything is revealed in one go. So towards the end of season 3 (in late January 2018), we see how she is not really sure if it’s a vision about Smangele or about
her brother Mastermind (Ntokozo Dlamini), but she knows it is in the family. These are orphan children that she has taken under her wing. She sees Mastermind as a son almost, so she’s really scared for them. She tries to warn them but she isn’t yet clear. Moving into season 4 (starting on Monday 5 February – see p14), the message is becoming clearer and harsher and harder on her.” MaMlambo is soon frantic to stop the rising tide of blood in her dreams, but no one heeds her desperate warning until it’s too late.
LOST IN THE NOISE
Between Smangele’s excitement over planning her wedding and the church conference about fighting crime that’s being organised by Pastor Mdletshe’s newcomer sister Gabisile (Baby Cele), MaMlambo’s voice is drowned out. “It would be frustrating for anyone! It’s like when your friend is into this guy and you know that he is trouble but she doesn’t want to listen,” says Gugu. Meanwhile, the ancestors’ warnings are getting clearer – and bloodier. “Earlier it was just in her own home, but now she starts seeing blood in the church. First in the board meeting, then in the actual service. It’s very scary and MaMlambo starts wondering what is going to happen: ‘Why am I seeing blood while I am in church, why am I seeing blood on my hands in the church?’ So she knows it is something pertaining to the church and this is a place she loves dearly, these are people she loves dearly.”
A VISION OF BLOOD
MaMlambo is filled with dread as she enters the church for Gabisile’s conference on Friday 9 February. “She’s very sure of her communications that she has with the ancestors and she trusts the ancestors when they speak, they will never make a mistake. When she goes into the church, she is sure that something is going to happen even though she doesn’t know what,” says Gugu. Then Nkunzi’s (Masoja Msiza) gangsters spill into the church on Friday 9 February, leading to a hostage situation and a shoot-out between his heavily armed masked thugs and officer Mondli (Thembinkosi Thwala). MaMlambo can only cower in helpless terror as the veil is lifted and the violence that the ancestors have been warning her about plays out before her eyes. “She sees the Pastor’s wife MaNzuza (Leleti Khumalo) dying in front of her and Smangele shot. She doesn’t put two and two together in that minute because while it is happening, it’s a matter of life and death and all she is thinking is, ‘I don’t want to die’. But afterwards, we see her putting the pieces together. She’s like, ‘Oh! I knew it. I knew it, I am sure that this is what was meant’,” says Gugu.
ALL MY FAULT
In the aftermath, aside from the deep sense of loss and grief, MaMlambo wrestles with guilt. “She feels like a lot of these things are her fault because she didn’t do enough to warn the people in church about the things that would transpire,” explains Gugu. “Even though we see that she does the best that she can to alert these people, they just don’t want to listen. The ancestors were telling her, ‘Do something! Do something!’, but there was only so much she could do. This is why she goes into a bit of a depression afterwards,” says Gugu. “She feels disconnected from her ancestors. She asks why she didn’t really see what was happening, why she wasn’t better equipped to warn these people. And it is frustrating for her, especially because these two people who are so dear to the community have lost their lives. She feels like the ancestors have taken away her power to be heard.”
ANSWERING A CALL
Looking back over 2017, MaMlambo realises that she has allowed worldly affairs to distract her from her calling. “She feel like she has drifted,” admits Gugu. Some might say that her getting into this relationship with the Pastor is a sin. Online, some people were saying it that took away her power. And that’s actually true, if you do your research – in the sense that some people’s ancestors are really selfish; they want the person to only be given completely to them and not to give themselves to any other human being, not to give themselves to the love of money or the love of all other things.” And so on Tuesday 13 February, MaMlambo makes a resolution and walks into the sea…
MAMLAMBO RISING
“There’s a beautiful scene where she’s going back into the ocean to ask that she be cleansed and be given powers. And not even just her original powers, but that she be given more power than she had before. One might say that the distractions of the world have caused her to drift apart from her ancestors and now she’s going back to the root of it all. She’s like, ‘Okay, I want you to give me back the ability to speak and have people listen to me. Make me strong again. Make me see exactly what you see. Make me hear exactly what you want me to hear,’” reveals Gugu. And it looks like the ancestors will accept MaMlambo’s prayer.
“After she’s gone to the ocean, she sees things clearer. And with that, she goes to Mastermind and she tells him, ‘This is what I see: Smangele is losing her battle, so let her go in peace’.” And as KwaMashu mourns MaNzuza and Smangele’s deaths, MaMlambo will be stepping up to protect her community, with the ancestors watching over and guiding her. “In 2018, we will see a lot bigger, better, stronger MaMlambo in terms of her calling. Because they saw that what she told them about [her visions] has come true, they trust her more. The story that is being told for her is beautiful,” says Gugu.