Gugu Zuma-Ncube speaks about representation, an ashy cast and her new show #Ifalakhe

After two successful episodes, it is safe to say that Mzansi Magic’s latest period drama has firmly captured the Sunday TV community. 

The location 👍👌👏 The costumes 👌👌🔥😍 the theme of everything I stan #IfalakheMzansi #ifalakhe

— IG:Joy-Zelda (@joy_zelda) October 13, 2019

https://twitter.com/lunzlove/status/1183453774175789056?s=20

My 4 year old son calls IFALAKHE iziNkosi, he gets so excited when it airs and we not allowed to say they acting…. To him the whole thing is real 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Thank you ladies for this phenomenal show! It's Amazing 🔥🔥🔥….

Nizi POWERHOUSE! pic.twitter.com/HKHQXzGetW

— Esethu Yamkela Juqu🌈 (@EsethuYummyJ) October 14, 2019

Created by Stained Glass Pictures, the same production house responsible for SABC 1’s Uzalo, Ifalakhe (which means someone’s inheritance) is a period drama that tells the tale of the powerful Okuhle tribe, who wages war against the Khanya people for raiding their cattle and killing their women and children.

The Okuhle people are led by King Khombindlela (played by Bheki Sibiya), whose actions set in motion a prophecy that could see one of two outcomes for the Okuhle people – a prosperous future or a dire one.

“This prophecy not only threatens his lineage of the rule of his true heir but also gives him an unnerving task of ensuring it does not come to fruition,” said Mzansi Magic in a statement.

“The series was set in pre-colonial Southern Africa, which adds a rich texture to the story and makes for, what we feel, is brilliant television,” said Mmamitse Thibedi, one of Stained Glass’s directors and creators.

Another one of the show’s creators and stars is Gugu Zuma-Ncube and The Citizen recently caught up with her to find out what it took for three women to turn an idea into a production of this scale. 

“It wasn’t easy. I think all productions are difficult. There’s a lot going on and there’s added responsibility when it’s a period piece, there’s added things you need to watch for and worry about. Things you don’t worry about when you’re doing current periods and television,” began Zuma-Ncube. 

Although Stained Glass did not have a huge production team to keep abreast of everything, Zuma-Ncube owes their success to what she called a diligent, hard-working team who kept the importance of the project in mind. 

According to Zuma-Ncube, getting Ifalakhe onto local television screens was a project that had been four or five years in the making down to the day the idea first crossed her mind. She went on to work with Thibedi and Thuso Zuma to make the idea a reality. 

https://twitter.com/MissZahZu/status/1183404237218373633?s=20

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“It’s been a long time in the making, it’s gone through various iterations, various writing rooms, development, trying to get the story as refined as possible. Trying to make as synched and beautiful and impactful as possible.” 

When watching the show, it’s hard to miss the glistening skin of all the cast members and Zuma-Ncube said that the decision to oil up the cast was part of the production team’s overall aim to give a revisionist take on that time period in particular. 

Even though, by Zuma-Ncube’s own admission, the time period they’re depicting isn’t necessarily pre-colonial as previously stated, the production team still wanted to tell a story that wasn’t from the perspective of the coloniser. 

As such, they did their best to imagine the characters from the vantage point of someone who lived among them during that time. 

“We feel like those time periods typically where they are represented, are represented really badly.”

With King Ndukuzakhe killed what will become of Okuhle? And with Khombindlela's sons born at the same time, who will become #ifalakhe? #ifalakhemzansi 💥👑👑 Sunday, 8pm on #mzansimagic pic.twitter.com/vkLASpESge

— Stained Glass TV (@stainedglasstv_) October 11, 2019

“For example, I come from KZN and it doesn’t matter whether it’s winter, summer, whatever the time is, day or night, that place is as green and verdant as you can imagine. uShaka Zulu is brown and he is dark-skinned and he looks good and I think part of people telling us who we are and representing us when it’s not us representing ourselves is that they tell us who they are and that comes with an agenda… “ she explained

“So we always have to be inferior, we have to be barbaric, we have to be dark, we have to be this and that… So part of the over-moisturisation of the cast was to represent healthy, glowing, alive and vibrant people who are as far away from dull, dusty, and ashy as humanly possible,” she added.  

Zuma-Ncube said that the team at Stained Glass Pictures were ready to put out as many seasons of the show as people were willing to watch if Mzansi Magic wished to continue airing it. 

“The creative well never runs dry. So, it’s just about if people are still enjoying it, we can still produce it.”

As someone who knows what’s coming, episode three and four are among Ncube’s most-nail-biting episodes but she insisted that she also coudln’t wait for viewers to see episodes seven, 10 and 13. 

She ended our chat with a call to action for viewers to watch the show and tweet about it, post on Instagram and tell the production house what they think. 

“We’re so dying to just engage with the audiences about what they think of the product, it’s been sitting with us for a long time.” 

Ifalakhe airs on Mzansi Magic DStv channel 161 on Sundays at 8pm and is available on DStv Catch Up thereafter. You can also watch it online on ShowMax or via DStv Now’s Catch Up tab.

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