PRACTISING as a sangoma while being a full-time actress can be seen as too difficult, but not for Smangele Mhlongo.
The actress and sangoma from Umlazi, Durban, made a name for herself as Maka Chicken in her reality show, KwaNjomane and played a corrupt cop called Colonel Mabaso on Uzalo.
The 43-year-old, who is now a gobela, started practising a sangoma in 2009, and she has trained countless amathwasa.
Smangele has recently joined Mzansi Wethu’s soapie, Sibongile and The Dlaminis, where she plays Sokhabase’s aunt. At the same time, she also plays the wild and bubbly Mam’Shokobile on Mzansi Magic’s latest drama offering, Icala.
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She told Daily Sun that she believes being a sangoma and actress are her callings, and her ancestors want her to do both.
“I won’t lie; it’s difficult to do both because both require a lot of time, but I’m doing it better because it's my calling.
“Sometimes I don’t sleep or just sleep a few times because when I return from acting, I have to focus on my indumba, consulting, healing people and training amathwasa,” she said.
Smangele makes her acting life easier because she takes her time reading and understanding her scripts.
“Even in my indumba, while I train amathwasa to be future izangoma, I also read my scripts, and now they are familiar with it and help me.
“Because I don’t want my indumba to be overloaded, I only take eight amathwasa and train them to be izangoma per season. Last week, one of them graduated as a sangoma, and now I currently have seven amathwasa,” she said.
She said that she realised she was talented in acting many years ago, but her challenge was that she didn’t know where to start.
“I started my short drama on my social media and after that, many doors opened, and I ended up having a reality show on TV.
“At the moment, I’m not sure if my reality show will be back on TV. It will depend in God’s hands because viewers loved it,” she said.
