“We had a band and we played as a family, for weddings or any type of event,” explains Lindiwe.
Luck smiled on her at the age of 18 when she landed a role in the South African play Sarafina!a musical first performed at the Market Theater in Johannesburg in 1986 which tells the story of a schoolgirl from township of Soweto who revolts against apartheid and its injustices.
“The director of Sarafina came home to see my father because he had heard of children singing. He met us and gave us an audition,” says Lindiwe. She and several of her siblings then joined the troupe and spent more than four years on tour.
Sarafina brought Lindiwe to Durban, Johannesburg and finally New York, where the troupe performed at the Cort Theater (now called the James Earl Jones Theatre) on Broadway for over a year. When the play finally ended, it took him almost seven years to integrate a new show — and what a show!
Lindiwe still loves playing in The Roi Lion. She embodies a lioness, a hyena and other characters with elaborate and colorful costumes who must go wild on stage. “Every time I go on stage, I give it my all,” she explains.
For twenty-five years on the bill, the show has received six Tony Awards, eight Drama Desk Awards, and even a Grammy Award.
According to Lindiwe, The Roi Lion owes its immense success to the fact that it delivers a universal message. “Even though we play animals, everyone manages to enjoy it. The public attends deaths, unions, problems… Everything that makes life. They feel better thanks to us. »
The Lion King is also a story imbued with South African rhythms and melodies which puts ten South African talents center stage, including Bongi, Lindiwe’s husband, an actor in the play for fifteen years, and Ntomb’khona Dlamini, the sister de Lindiwe, who has participated in the show on an ad hoc basis since its launch. It has become like a second home.
As a South African expat residing in the United States, Lindiwe relies on the other members of the show to help keep her smiling in times of doubt.
“It’s very comforting. This atmosphere, the people you work with… Especially racialized people,” she explains when asked how she has experienced the pandemic and racial tensions in the United States.
“I remember for example that, when there was the story of George Floyd, it was really reassuring to talk with others and express our emotions,” says Lindiwe. “You have to have a light mind, otherwise you’ll get depressed. »
LOVE AND FAMILY LIFE
Of course, she can also count her husband, with whom she shares these two worlds.
They understand each other, are both easy-going and make each other laugh a lot, but Bongi is perhaps slightly more outgoing, and Lindiwe a little more serious.
They met the day Bongi joined the show.
When asked what he thought when they first met, he replied, “I knew his brothers. I used to go to church [de son père], play games and listen to music. Bongi, who was born in Umlazi, was a musician and composer before becoming an actor. “His brothers were talking about their sisters going to America. »
“I never imagined meeting her one day,” he explains.
After they met, they quickly became friends, then finally lovers. They got married quickly and are now a blended family, caring for Lindiwe’s son and daughter from a previous relationship, and their own daughter, now 14.
Lindiwe emphasizes that they keep a clear boundary between their professional life and their family life.
“I was clear on this: once you go through the doors [du théâtre]we don’t know each other anymore,” she explains.
“Some of the people who join the show don’t know that we’ve been married for fifteen years. Many are shocked! she laughs.
ON ITS REPUTATION
What does the local community think of these esteemed comedians and philanthropists?
Lungani, the brother-turned-pastor, says that many people in the township don’t know what Bongi and Liniwe are doing, or have no idea of their influence in the theater world. “Nothing differentiates them from the others here. Most South Africans don’t know Broadway. »
Bongi confirms these words. “People don’t know who we are,” he explains. “We’re not showing off here. »
None of that matters to Lindiwe. She never imagined one day having this life, and that a musical like The Lion King would help him define himself as a person. She doesn’t just care about holding a world record, but also about fame. “I don’t want them to see me as a celebrity. I want them to see me as Lindiwe. »
She realizes all the same how lucky she is: thanks to this show, her father had the opportunity to visit New York and admire it on Broadway, in all its splendour. Came in 1998 accompanied by Lindiwe’s mother to attend the show, he died a year later of kidney failure.
“He could see all of that,” Lindiwe says. “He could see it, and he loved it! »
What would he think of this long career on Broadway?
“He would be extremely proud to see that I’m still part of the show,” says Lindiwe.
On the occasion of this 25e birthday, she imagines her father sitting somewhere in the audience laughing and applauding, perhaps surrounded by rows of children from theEvangelical Churchand young people from Umlazi and around Durban, who will make their dreams of one day performing on Broadway a reality.