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Previously, the only time Ndebele people could really feel included in TV and radio programming was when watching the isiNdebele news on SABC1 or listening to Ikwekwezi FM.
But that’s all about to change because the first-ever isiNdebele drama is heading to our screens. It’s called Ikani and it is a family drama swirling with mystery and fantasy.
Khanya Hlophe was raised by her aunt after her father was imprisoned and is in search of her true identity. She will ultimately discover that despite being brought up in a Zulu household, she is Ndebele. She must learn about her roots and her culture, and it won’t be an easy journey.
Thandeka Mdeliswa is the young actress who plays 25-year-old Khanya. She’s landed minor roles on local soaps Generations: The Legacy, Isidingo and Rhythm City, and a bigger one on the SABC1 short story series Ngempela. Her leading role in Ikani, she told City Press this week, is “a dream come true” and her big break in the industry.
“I was going through a ball of emotions when I heard. I was happy and nervous at the same time. I asked myself if I was going to be able to pull it off,” she said.
She threw herself into researching her character.
“I had to put myself in the shoes of a slay queen and understand how they do things and how they think.”
Mdeliswa, who is Xhosa, was fortunately raised by her great-grandmother who spoke isiNdebele, so she knows the language, albeit not fluently. However, she isn’t the only cast member whose native language isn’t isiNdebele.
Award-winning actress Florence Masebe plays Bafunani Mahlangu, who is in charge of a mortuary and a burial society.
“The fact that the very first time the SABC grants isiNdebele space on a drama and I get to be part of the cast is quite a big deal for me,” she told City Press when we visited the Ikani set last week.
Venda-born Masebe is known to be a multilingual actress and says she can even speak a bit of Shona and Swahili.
“Whatever people around me speak, I will speak with them in their language. I have done it over the years, it is a gift from my father.”
Although Masebe can speak isiNdebele, she doesn’t trust herself to choose the right words, so she relies on Ikani’s team of isiNdebele language advisers.
And South African viewers will start ranting and tweeting the moment they hear their language being mangled.
“I know that all eyes will be on me from people who think: ‘Why she is taking this role because she does not speak isiNdebele?’ But whenever I work in another person’s language I go all the way in.”
In preparation, she has been listening only to Ikwekwezi FM and has fallen in love with the station. Ikani, she says, is driven by honouring the culture.
Producer Wandile Molebatsi of Coal Stove Pictures is proudly African.
“We came up with an idea of iqhude [a coming of age ceremony for Ndebele girls] to celebrate the culture. We are working with a lot of specialists to know what to film and what not to film because we need to be respectful... It’s a story that allows people to know what it means to be a young woman in South Africa right now, and we want it to be entertaining.”
So what have the other challenges been?
“Finding the talent,” he says.
Molebatsi turned to Ikwekwezi FM for help and they put the word out about the auditions for the show. But he’s not about to relax any time soon.
“I am feeling stressed because isiNdebele is very colourful, so we have to make sure that we get it right.”
Language adviser Vusi Ndlovu says he’s hugely impressed with the progress the non-isiNdebele speakers are making. The language has been marginalised so they are trying to find a standardised usage in the drama. He hopes that viewers will give Ikani a chance to prove the work that has been put in to make the language authentic.
You’ll have to tune in to SABC1 on September 30 at 7.30pm to find out if the passionate cast and crew pulled it off.
