You may have seen Zewande Bhengu in his role as Crocodile on SABC1's drama series Sticks and Stones? The series started just after the World Cup ended and follows the story of a shero who needs to make it in the masculine world of construction.
Zewande
doesn't play himself in the show. Crocodile's the opposite of him (as you'll see).
Since I first spotted Zewande in the show I've been quizzy about him, specifically after I discovered that he's a slam poet too. I'm mad about slam poetry ... reading it, hearing it, speaking it. I watched Zewande slamming a poem and decided that I needed to get touch with him to find out what I don't know about him.
Today I'm pleased to present the result ... a scrapbook of 10 things I discovered:
1. Zewande was going to play the role of Denja on Sticks and Stones - and he did for two days. Dumisani Dlamini was going to play Crocodile and Zewande was going to play Denja but on the second day of filming the show swapped their roles. It was an age thing. Crocodile needed to be Zewande's age instead of Dumisani's for the story to make sense later on.
2. Zewande wears tracksuits and T-shirts or a kurta with a Japanese collar because he prefers Eastern philosophies to the philosophies of the West. He has his kurta's tailor made.
3. Zewande has this pic on his Twitter feed ...
What does it mean?
It represents his attitude towards hip hop. Zewande explains:
The image is part of a series from some paintings ... I can't remember the artist right now ... when hip hop started it was a way to tell stories about current struggles and to educate people.
By people, it was usually the minorities and what hip hop has developed into right now ... if you listen to South African rapper called Emphatic Tabs, he says is that what people have done now is use rap solely to make money and to leave their roots in terms of educating and those responsibilities.
They just want to elevate their solo careers and become bigger than everybody else so in a sense they also form part of a system so instead of progressing they're regressing and further chaining themselves and us with them because they have this platform to teach but they're not doing that.
4. His older brother died in a car accident in 2012, leaving him an only child. His brother was 11 years older than him.
5. He doesn't go to nightclubs, doesn't drink and doesn't hang out in a clique.
6. His slam poem Sticks & Stones is inspired by the show. Here's a vid of him slamming it in his kurta ....
7. He's a conceptual photographer. And an excellent one. He's the eye behind photographs ...
8. Zewande describes the biggest difference between himself and Crocodile like so:
Zewande: I'm a very intellectually violent person ... some people, well, one person some time ago said, "You're very intellectually frustrated." My ideas, in terms of my thinking about the world, I'm on that level while Crocodile is much more active about his ideas - he's much more physically dangerous. He's very different from who I am in the way he dresses - when I'm in my T-shirt and tracksuit, I'm happiest because I like to be able to move.
9. He won the SABC debating show The Right To Win - he won the fifth episode of Season 2.
10. The soapie he most wants to be on: Isidingo.
Zewande: I'm looking for a nice character on a soapie. Different soapies for different reasons. If I just wanted it for the fame of it, I'd love to be on Generations but if I wanted something much more flexible in terms of schedule, then I would continue doing series. To get my face out there to a younger audience I'd go Rhythm City and Scandal! but my all-time favourite would have to be ... it kind of covers everything ... would have to be Isidingo. They set the bar for a number of our soapies.
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Catch Zewande on Sticks and Stones on SABC1, Wednesdays at 20h30.