Sunday Times - Sunday, 5 September, 2004

Instead of designer chic and blinding bling, Khumalo is in mousy beiges and browns - with a flash of colour coming from pink socks peeking over beige footwear. Her only jewellery is a gold wedding ring, with a modest diamond, and medium-sized round gold earrings.

A globetrotting talented actress and singer Khumalo may be, but fashionista at large she is not.

"I'm a simple person and live a simple life. When my husband and I go holiday, we visit his family in rural KwaZulu-Natal," she says, referring to her equally well-known and multi-talented hubby, Mbongeni Ngema, who is a playwright and a music producer, among other things. He is also the man Khumalo says she is forever grateful to for kickstarting her international film, stage and singing careers.

The simple life is what Khumalo's new movie role is about. She plays a young village mother in the Anant Singh-produced feature film Yesterday. The dialogue is completely in Zulu with English subtitles, and the film was shot on location in the Drakensburg.

With this movie, Khumalo has revived her big-screen appeal, which started when she overshadowed Whoopi Goldberg in Sarafina! in 1992. But don't expect her signature energetic dance moves - though the Julia Roberts-style big smile is still there.

The character Yesterday is raising her daughter alone in Rooihoek while her husband digs the gold mines in Joburg. Her life involves tilling the soil, fetching water and walking for hours to visit the doctor who comes once a week, only to be turned away when the queue is too long.

When she finally does see the doctor, played by Zulu-speaking former SABC1 continuity presenter Camilla Walker, she is devastated to learn she has contracted the dreaded HIV.

"This role was so me," says Khumalo of her emancipated character as she sips still water.

"Darrell [James Roodt, writer and director] called me while I was doing Stimela Sase Zola at the Market Theatre to say he had a script for me. My husband and I read the script for two days. It appealed to both of us. The story was so true. That's why I say the story was me; because it was so true, so rural and simple. I like things that are simple. I think every woman out there will associate with the story, especially those from emakhaya (rural areas)."

But this is not just a story about an illiterate, rural woman's struggle to come to grips with being HIV-positive. It is about the triumph of the human spirit. It is about forgiving those who knock you down. It is about a mother's love for her child and her will to live long enough to see her baby walking into a classroom for the first time in her school uniform.

Khumalo, 34, who grew up in Kwa-Mashu township, north of Durban, says she needed to do the film for rural people, especially women.

"It seems like we forget rural people. And you know what, they do have televisions, some of them go to the movies but they can't associate themselves with the entertainment they see. So the way I saw it was that it was going to be an honour to do this movie for them," she says.

A Zulu speaker, Khumalo nonetheless found it daunting to do a whole feature film in the vernacular without so much as using everyday words like "and", "but" and "if". It was especially difficult for her young co-star, seven-year-old Lihle Mvelase, who plays her daughter, Beauty.

"I love children, and Lihle was so cute and always gave me hugs. But when she was tired, she didn't want anything to do with shooting and that was that. She was the boss," laughs Khumalo, who is not yet a mother herself.

But shooting in the scenic Drakensburg, in a village called Okhombe near the Bergville area, made up for any difficulties - even if it was terribly windy for most of the six weeks they were there.

"Yhoo, the place is beautiful. I've seen lovely rural scenery but that one yangi shaya (hit me). I was, like, my goodness! But the weather wasn't great ... I remember on the second or third day, the wind was blowing us in all directions, I didn't have my glasses so my eyes were stinging and it was general misery. But I told myself this is the career I chose so I have to work."

This dedication to her chosen career began in 1985 when she auditioned for Ngema's upcoming new musical, which was to became the international blockbuster Sarafina! Ngema was so impressed that he created the lead character of Sarafina especially for his future wife.

A whirlwind, star-studded life followed, with the play touring the world and performed on Broadway, New York, where Khumalo stayed for two years and won a Tony Award for Best Actress. In 1987 she received a National Association For the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Image Award for Best Stage Actress for the role.

Then came Roodt's film version co-starring Hollywood star Goldberg, and a nomination for another NAACP Image Award together with Angela Bassett, Goldberg and Janet Jackson.

Not only is Khumalo an actress, she is also a gifted singer. She has starred in a number of stage productions and released the album Leleti and the Sarafina in 1993.

Khumalo singles out her former domestic worker mother, a recovered alcoholic, for showing her how to be strong.

"We were so poor at home that we would sleep on bread alone and made sure a loaf lasted us a whole day. And when my mother cleaned up her act, I admired her for her courage. That is why playing a strong woman like Yesterday means so much to me. I'm doing it for all the other strong women, including my mother, out there."

*Yesterday is on circuit

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