LELETI KHUMALO - From backyard dancer to big screen star

“If I want to do something, I will do it. Nobody’s going to tell me differently,” says Leleti Khumalo in a voice so quiet and delicate that you almost don’t believe her.  Yet take a look back on her life and it’s clear she’s not lacking in dedication.

Khumalo’s father died when she was three, leaving her domestic worker mother to raise four children in Durban’s Kwa Mashu township.

And it’s here that her performing career began as she joined a youth backyard dance group called Amajika. “I’ve always wanted to be an actress,” she says plainly – and, for once, these clichéd words sound like the truth.

It must be the fond way she recalls her successful audition, as a sixteen-year-old, for a musical. Her mother was supportive, “but even if she hadn’t encouraged me, I knew I was going to do it” says Khumalo.

The ‘it’ in question was the production ‘Sarafina!’.

“It all started with that,” she understates, typically. Mbongeni Ngema’s production about the 1976 student uprising – with her as the title character – left South African soil for an international tour and spent two years on Broadway.

When it was turned into a film, starring Whoopi Goldberg, Khumalo reprised her role – this time under the direction of Darrel James Roodt.

When, nearly ten years later, Roodt decided to make a film about an HIV-positive woman who bravely fights the disease and the prejudices of her rural community, he thought of Khumalo.

“The director called me, he said he had a script and we wants me involved,” explains the actress.

She read the script and loved it – especially it’s truth. “It’s a beautiful, true story. It’s so true. It shows exactly what’s happening in the rural areas today.”

This truth is what appealed to her: “It’s the kind of movie I want to do. It’s a truly South African story that talks about life on a day-to-day basis."

“It’s time to do a movie about life.”

“Apartheid stories have been told,” she says. “Now it’s time to move on, it’s time to move to the stories of today,” she believes. And ‘Yesterday’ is one of those stories.

Equally important, she thinks, is that it’s a local story told in a local language.

“Other countries use their own languages in their films, we should be telling African stories in African languages, like Zulu,” she believes.

And ‘Yesterday’ “is perfect in Zulu”. Rather than coming across as a fictional construct, the film feels real. “It’s like telling a story, like talking to someone,” she says.

“The people in it don’t seem to be acting, they’re just telling you about their lives.” And this, she believes, is important for audiences to remain open to the film’s message.

“The people aren’t boring. They’re not preaching at you. Usually when people preach, you get bored, you switch off,” she says.

“All South Africans will feel connected to it,” she says without a trace of arrogance.

In rural areas, people often “don’t know much about HIV. Often they don’t realise you must give a person love if they’re sick”. She believes that the film – to be used in Aids education across the county – will help break down prejudices surrounding the disease.

“People in rural areas who watch it will be taught about HIV, without realising it.”

She believes rural women, especially, will identify with the film. “The movie talks about them. They will feel very proud to have their story told, their lives brought to the screen. It’s a life they can identify.”

And urban South Africans will learn more about life beyond the tarred roads and suburban homes. “If you see how people struggle and suffer and face up to hardships in their daily lives, you’ll take a different look at your own life.”

“It will make you work harder in life,” she adds with the gentle grace that underlies her character, Yesterday's, steadfast commitment in the face of adversity.

So, did she identify with her character? “Yesterday’s life I understand perfectly,” she says. “It’s a fascinating life.” And, more tellingly, she adds: “Yesterday’s a very strong woman.”

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