It was ululation after ululation at the Shaka iLembe premiere at Montecasino, just a few days ahead of it hitting the screens.
From the traditional dance performances to the black carpet experience and the exclusive screening, it was jaw-dropping.
As highly esteemed guests and cast members made their way from one end of the carpet covered with cow skin rugs to the other end, heads turned in anticipation to catch the woman of the moment - Nomzamo Mbatha.
The wait was worth it as she made her first appearance of the night in a royal golden gown, wearing her hair up, alongside her co-star Lemogang Tsipa.
Queen Nandi and Shaka Zulu were in the building and flashes went off when they walked in with the rest of the cast ahead of the screening in the cinema theatre.
Reminiscing on the night, the morning after the screening, she tells Drum that it was all kinds of emotional.
She starts off the Zoom interview giddy and says, “It’s been beautiful, it’s been amazing.”
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As glamourous as it may look, Nomzamo shares how hard it actually is being what many call “the superstar”.
For the first time, she wasn’t just an actress in the drama series but also an executive producer at a discussion table that she joined eight years ago.
Speaking about debuting her executive producing skills with the Zulu love story, she says, “I just wanted to do a brave thing, I want to tell stories that I actually like and enjoy. I want to portray characters and people that I revere, that have changed the discourse of who we are as a people. Shaka iLembe is only just the beginning. It has been an awesome journey of just being a student, learning, soaking it all in and finding my own voice.”
The beginning of her journey in executive producing couldn’t have been kickstarted by a better production.
She prides herself so much in the culture.
For her, it was more than just another production to place under her belt. It was an opportunity for Africans to tell their own stories, in their own way.
“I believe that we don’t have our own ethic, it’s been a while since we had our own ethic that is done by us with us at the forefront and it’s time for us to be able to tell stories from our gaze, to reverse the gaze [when telling the story of precolonial Africa].”
She notes that the younger generation know little to nothing about African history and Shaka being a name that’s internationally associated with the country, his story was worthy to be retold with greater intention and in-depth.
In producing Shaka iLembe, bits and pieces of the original Shaka Zulu movie were used as a foundation to build up the story.
“We loved the previous one (Shaka Zulu movie) because it was scalable, and it gave us a mirror of what it would look like, and everyone was passionate about it.”
While many may think Shaka iLembe is a remake of the previous production, Nomzamo assures that it is nothing close to a remake of the movie.
In fact, it is from a completely different perspective; a perspective from one of the main characters in the movie – Shaka Zulu’s aunt, Mkabayi, played by Dawn Thandeka King.
“It is beautiful and fun. People must remember that this is not a documentary, it is a gorgeous epic story,” she says.
To bring her character to the party, Nomzamo says she had to tap into the more courageous side of herself in order to be unafraid, to not hold back and to be open to the spirit of Nandi because unlike the other characters she’s had in her career, she was portraying somebody who lived before and not a fictional character.
“I did so much research [on her] to be able to find that woman and find that young girl. I had to also allow myself to be in physicality and move past any mental blockages because we’re gonna have titties and bums out, you know.”
In portraying Nandi, she, like any other cast member, had to wear costumes that were representative of the ancient dressing code which meant very little coverage of the body by either leather or animal skin.
Although she had to consider that she’s a humanitarian activist and being seen almost naked without context would cause a stir, she says she had to come to terms with the fact that she was merely creating art.
“I’m not just naked because I’m trying to be provocative, I am naked because that’s not even me, that’s Nandi. We [were] making art, we wanted to tell an unsanitised story and in its truest form.”
From Nandi, the award-winning actress learned how to be unafraid to use her voice, speak her truth and be liberated in what she’s always wanted liberation in.
Jokingly, she says she can’t believe how she’s not a nudist yet because she was basically naked on set for eight months but also says the experience ridded her of insecurities and she’s glad.
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She would have never guessed that this is what was to come out of her character as her first day on set was a bit shaky.
“I kept on choking up because I could not believe that it was finally happening. All these years of back and forth, was finally paying off.”
“As a performer, as soon as I put on isgege sami which is the little skirtie and I put on my beads, I looked in the mirror I said, ‘Hi Nandi’. From the sunrise to the sunset, that day was a special one [despite the nerves],” she adds.
It has all come full circle for Nomzamo as the drama series airs its first episode on Sunday 18 June at 8pm on Mzansi Magic, the channel that she made her acting debut on.
On the day the whole continent gets to see it, she says she wants to be in KwaMashu, a township in KwaZulu-Natal where she was born and raised, to watch the first episode again on her grandmother’s couch.
She says that she hopes her neighbours are going to come out on the streets in celebration as they used to whenever someone from the neighbourhood scored a big win in life.
