CAUGHT RED HANDED
Clash of the queens as MaZulu and MaNdlovu confront kaMadonsela about her muti madness!
Last year, kaMadonsela (Fundiswa Zwane) named and shamed MaZulu (Leleti Khumalo) in front of their church for an affair with kaMadonsela’s husband Phakade (Sandile Dlamini) that produced four children. But now here she sits in her own kitchen home in Umbumbulu looking at the very woman who destroyed her marriage, because MaZulu has moved in! The pain she feels is indescribable. And kaMadonsela is just supposed to swallow it, keep a brave face and battle through like a brave little woman. But she has a dose of muti for MaZulu to get a little of her own back.
“It feels like a natural progression, to go from exploding to wanting to do something about it. This is a woman dealing with grief. I don’t think we’ve truly understood the magnitude with which this has affected her internally,” says Fundiswa. “I’ve never seen ’Donsi as a woman who would go that far, but clearly she is. This is a woman broken and this is a woman hurting. We never know how far desperation can take a person. She has tried keeping silent and that hasn’t worked. She has tried adopting a baby and that too hasn’t worked.” And now she’s trying muti, dark magic and revenge.
THORN IN MY FLESH
Having MaZulu in her space and in her face isn’t just rubbing kaMadonsela’s nose in the affair – it is highlighting every inequality and injustice in their lives. “If someone moves from your peripheral to your immediate, that changes your dynamics and how you interact with them. When this woman, given what has recently happened, comes into her immediate space, she becomes a thorn that kaMadonsela must deal with. It’s in your flesh and you can see it! It’s not like it’s just in your shoe anymore,” says Fundiswa.
Because she is a pain and a thorn in her flesh, kaMadonsela needs to find a mechanism to deal with MaZulu so that she stops bleeding. She has sons and kaMadonsela doesn’t, so she is thinking, ‘What about her was better than me? Is she a blessed woman that the ancestors love her more? Is she better because she has money?’ She’s a source of discomfort for kaMadonsela. MaZulu is a family member who has much more money because of this dynasty that is built on our cows, might I add [MaZulu’s husband Ngcolosi (Tony Kgoroge) funded his empire by selling his brother Phakade’s cows that he never paid him back for]. But MaZulu has this dynasty and she is able to afford this life. So there has always been this sense of undercurrent of…” Fundiswa produces a questioning and sceptical hum. And with those tormenting thoughts comes bitter anger: “This blows it from a feeling of discomfort to ‘I outright think that I might hate you right now. I am so angry at you! How could you do this to me?’”
LOSING HOPE & FAITH
The pain has even closed kaMadonsela off from her faith. “It’s a huge spiritual complication for her. The show plays around a lot on ancestors, so she is having those spiritual questions like, ‘Lord, I have been faithful. I have been the woman, I have been a support structure and culturally I understand the role of womanhood. I feel like I’ve played my part. So what is it? Are the ancestors angry with me?’” reveals Fundiswa. “She says, ‘Prayer has not helped me. It can’t change my reality, so I am not going back to church anymore.’ That’s huge for her. She really is in a distraught place.”
But even in this space, it’s the long years of habit and self- denial as a pastor’s wife and church woman that are allowing kaMadonsela to keep her head up and keep her secret. “It is innate in kaMadonsela that she would keep up appearances. She is hiding something huge now. It’s not just her relationship, she is dabbling in dark magic, so there are definitely appearances to keep now. Too much is at stake for her. It is years of doing this. She has had to sacrifice a lot of herself and that is where I believe the true injustice is. I think that’s is why I respect the character so much, just as Fundiswa playing the part. Pastors’ wives have had to sacrifice themselves a lot to keep up this entire community of people that they hold together. I think that’s a conversation that we need to start having, to start the process of people introspecting and healing.”
THE VELVET GLOVE
KaMadonsela has also chosen muti because she doesn’t feel able to lash out in any other way. Her customs and cultures as a woman have closed off
the possibility of confronting MaZulu directly and physically. Unlike Ngcolosi in his fury, kaMadonsela isn’t waving a gun in anyone’s face. “Oh honey! It would’ve been a whole different thing, right?” Fundiswa says mischievously. “It would have been a global circus, like a Trump/Putin summit. A mess! People can challenge this, but men tend to get to the point quite quickly, especially in this Zulu context. What needs to happen, happens. It would have been more violent. I think we’ve seen that seeping through with Ngcolosi’s psychological state. We saw him put his hands to a woman for the first time. We saw how violently he reacted to his brother. It would have been violent and emotionally excruciating. Look at where Ngcolosi tells Buhle (Vuyokazi Tshona), ‘You are no longer welcome into my office because you are not my child.’ It would be that level of emotional brutality, if they were men.”
RED-HANDED
But luckily for MaZulu, kaMadonsela’s silent, slow and painful punishment is stopped in its tracks when she’s caught by their mother-in-law MaNdlovu (Thembi Mtshali). And we can’t wait to see her face. Fundiswa gasps, then makes a whooping sound: “It’s Shock! Panic! Horror! I get goosebumps when I think of that scene again. Shock that her secret is out. Absolute panic. Two cunning humans against each other psychologically and you need to think fast on your feet: ‘How do I make this go away? How do I normalise the situation?’ MaNdlovu is very smart. It’s not like it would be if kaMadonsela’s younger daughter Futhi (Nokwanda Khuzwayo) found the muti, where she could play it away. This is MaNdlovu, who has done things, who is fully cognisant of what is going on in that moment.” But while kaMadonsela feels as horror-stuck as if MaNdlovu had caught her stealing out of her purse, the moment of discovery may actually be the first step towards healing.
THREE QUEENS
MaNdlovu is too canny to buy any of kaMadonsela’s tall tales and this will lead to a direct confrontation between MaZulu, kaMadonsela and MaNdlovu this fortnight that we get chills even thinking about! “You can feel the electricity and energy of these three African women as they play this verbal tennis,” says Fundiswa. “Every time the three of us shoot, the energy and the electricity of the kind of women that we represent is palpable on set. You can feel it. The worst has happened, everything is out in the air. It’s a lesson for kaMadonsela in what it feels like for your laundry to be aired in public. It’s karma,” Fundiswa points out. “They want to confront her and I say kudos to the writers for giving this woman a voice to be able to tell of her hurt and what has led her here. I think that is the moment that salvages her. It’s a beautiful moment, just her telling them what is happening inside. And her apologising. We are shifting this family’s energy in how the females relate to each other. It’s building spirit. And an acknowledgement – I under- stand that I have caused great pain but I am willing to be an active participant in rebuilding. We have made a beginning to build and heal this family.”
FAMILY BONDS
Despite the pain that kaMadonsela’s family has caused her, Fundiswa is of the belief that her greatest hope lies in family itself. “In the context of African culture, that is the best shot you have. The people who cause you the greatest pain will be the very people where your greatest learning comes from. So it’s her husband, her kids. She’s relying on the fact that they have had years of shared experiences that will help them – and the audience – to understand. Her first-born daughter Khanyo (Nqobile Ndlovu) is huge for kaMadonsela. She is a huge emotional pillar. That is this place of ‘I am not judged there. I take refuge there.’ Futhi is still a bit young. According to African culture, even speaking to Khanyo would be out of the ordinary because she is not married. But that is her go-to person. She has found a sister in her daughter actually.”
REBUILDING
Fundiswa trusts that Imbewu’s viewers will keep sympathy with kaMadonsela as she re-builds her relationships. “The audience and this character, they have walked a year’s journey together. You have seen her been lied to, you have seen Phakade kiss her and reassure her and speak away her insecurities. There is hope. We are women living these realities and we have found a way to carry on, to hold our families together and heal ourselves. This is a beautiful story when you start peeling away at the onion of it.”