By Genevieve Nkiwane

WHEN the name Luthuli Dlamini is mentioned, I guess we all think of some of the leading characters that he plays in some of the most popular South Africa soapies that the Zimbabwean has starred in.
“Stan Nyathi” in Scandal and then “Scott Nomvete” in Generations, to mention but a few.
My personal favourite is his role as “Robert Sobukwe” in the docu-drama titled Robert Sobukwe which tells the story of this somewhat forgotten struggle icon who led the PAC in thier strike against carrying the pass that led to the massacre of hundreds of people in Sharpeville referred to as the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.
He was brilliant in this role and without doubt, Robert Sobukwe himself had to smile as he lay in his grave at the incredible job that Luthuli did to bring him back to life as South Africa recalls their history.
I first met Thuli as many of us fondly called him in 1999 in Harare.
At the time we were both coming back home to Zimbabwe after years of being away in the UK.
So who is Luthuli Dlamini?
Luthuli was born in Bulawayo in the early 60s.
In the first three decades of his life, he was determined that he would end up in showbiz.
Moving back and forth between Africa and Europe he talks of having lived all the way through the Beatles craze of the UK and the liberation movement of Zimbabwe.
Born to a nurse and a teacher who had a love for knowledge beyond average, Luthuli tells of how he grew up always being encouraged to develop a love for reading.
A culture that went way back into his family heritage and passed down Dlamini adage that stated, “Some people fight wars with guns, but those who have the opportunity should fight with the book.”
He developed a love for literature, especially plays. His enthusiasm came from the early realisation that he could bury himself in a book and completely become immersed in that world.
He was drawn into how one could take a narrative and visualise it, re-enact it and even retell it.
And so he began his acting career at the very tender age of nine when he landed his first role at the Bulawayo National Theatre.
There he had his first debut in The Baobab Tree where he played the role as a wise owl and a monkey.
He had now caught the bug for acting and soon after that, came South Pacific, a lot of Shakespeare and whichever Eurocentric classics that came his way. That was Rhodesia, after all.
By the time he reached adolescence, Thuli wondered more and more about the comfort zone that they had fallen into at the Amateur Dramatics Society in Bulawayo.
“Why were we restaging the history and tradition of other people’s stories when we, as Africans had such a rich oral dramatic culture which we lived out every day?” he said.
“The way we expressed ourselves and told our stories began to be something that captured my imagination.
“I took it upon myself to become the newfound expression of all my re-enactments, recitals and narrations.”
Armed with this ammunition it would become his import as he went into exile in the UK.
At least this way, he would always have a part of home with him even though he was so far from Africa.
In order to survive flower power, race riots and the hype of punk in Britain meant embracing other Africans of the Diaspora and the Caribbean community that had also settled in London.
He got seduced by their music, their culture, their rebellion.
As a scholar though, he found himself making a 360 degree turn as he shifted from budding thespian to more technical and scientific pursuits as he went on to study as a medical physics technician.
In his own words Thuli talks of how through his ability to co-create and take others on an imaginative joyride with him he had managed to make himself immune to the pain around him.
“The suffering that was as massive in my existence as an alien in the UK and my ethnic heritage as an Ndebele in the turmoil filled Zimbabwe, deemed a catch-22 position,” he said.
“There was nowhere to run, nowhere to escape to, not even with my mind. 
“My heart had taken over and for once I was feeling.
“All those shelved memories of that time in Zimbabwe started to come back.
“Of me and my best mate Oswald planning to be a part of the struggle in whatever way we could.
“Were we going to be foot soldiers, politicians or pilots?
“We did not know — but what we did know, was that we had to be a part of the fight for a blood-free Zimbabwe.
“I may have not made it as a foot soldier or a politician in the end, but I do now realise how everything went full circle in leading me back right where I started.
“Right here at home, where I was always meant to be.
Since January 2014, Thuli has for the first time ever begun to work on his own movie titled 360 Degrees and for the first time ever he becomes an executive producer.
Like Leroy Gopal, Luthuli Dlamini will soon be heading this way to begin dialogue around script development and the making of movies right here in Zimbabwe
I close this week with a link to a teaser of the movie 360 Degrees which Luthuli wants me to share with Zimbabwe.
When I spoke to him this week, the reality of the struggle to tell our stories due to lack of adequate funding was at the top of his agenda.
He has raised 70 percent for this movie which is currently in production, but he still needs to raise another 30 percent to complete the story.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vdijhp05i9h9gp/Teaser.mp4#