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YOU NEWS

POPPIE HITS

THE BIG SCREEN

The well-known book has now been

turned into a movie. YOU talks to the

actresses who play Poppie Nongena and

her mom, Lenah BY PIETER VAN ZYL & BONOLO SEKUDU

HEbookhasbeentranslat-
ed into 13 languages and
was turned into a play that
earned standing ovations
night after night during its
year-longrunonBroadway
inNewYork.Nowit’sbe-
T ingbr
silver screen – and LEFT: Clementine
ittellsisasrelevant Mosimane bagged the
as it was when it best actress award at the
rived on the scen Silwerskerm Film Festival
42 years ago. in August for her role as
Poppie Nonge- Poppie (ABOVE).
na, which has
been raking in the Poppies er remained hidden behind the pseudo-
awards on the and ‘mad- nym Poppie Nongena until 2009, when
festival circuit, is ams’ come Joubert’s second biography, Reisiger
based on the true together in (Traveller), was published.
story of a domes- rder to get to In Elsa’s hit book, Poppie grows up
ticworkerinapart- ow and un- in Upington in the Northern Cape, a
heidSouthAfrica– rstand each Xhosa-born, Afrikaans-speaking girl
woman whose lif er better,” who married at age 16.
rippedapartbythe says. She moves to Cape Town where she
lawsthatdefinedt uld be a con- and her husband, Stone Nongena, settle
In present-day S weenwomen, inNyanga. When the Group Areas Act is
thousandsofmothersandgrandmoth- as it is in the book, between Pop- enforced in the 1960s, Poppie and her
ers still spend their days cooking and pie and [her employer] Mrs Swanepoel.” children are ordered to relocate to Ciskei,
cleaning in other people’s homes and Clementine says she’s honoured to a“Bantustan” homeland where her hus-
caringforchildrenwhoaren’ttheirown. play the role. “It took deep emotion to band, a boilerman, was born.
And often employers are oblivious to truly understand what our mothers and But Poppie refuses to budge. She
thedailychallengesthewomentheyrely grannies had to go through,” the actress spends a decade resisting the apartheid
on so much have to endure. says. laws, winning limited extensions to her
Butpointingfingersandincitingillwill permit allowing her and her children to
isn’t the message of Poppie’s story, says HE book is based on the true remain, until she’s forced to “resettle” in
veteranactressNomsaNene,whoplayed story of Ntombizodumo a remote township in the Eastern Cape.
the title character in the play version of Eunice Ntsatha, who worked Poppie couldn’t raise her own children
Elsa Joubert’s landmark book, Die for Elsa. Her childhood nick- “because she had to raise other people’s
SwerfjarevanPoppieNongena(TheLong name was Poppie – or “little children,” Clementine says.
Journey of Poppie Nongena). T doll” in Afrikaans. “Her children feel the neglect. Poppie
Now she plays Poppie’s mom, Lenah, Although Elsa, who was editor of alsocarries other burdens and struggles
withactressClementineMosimanepor- YOU’ssistermagazineHuisgenootinthe apart from taking care of her employer’s
traying the lead character. 1940s,sharedtheroyaltiesfromthebook home, the cleaning and ironing. She has
“Hopefully, this movie will help make with Poppie, the former domestic work- afamily of her own, and a sick husband.”

88 | 6 FEBRUARY 2020 you.co.za