If you chat to Siv Ngesi for longer than a few minutes, you quickly realise that it’s very difficult to sum him up and put a label on him and his work.
Yes, he’s an actor and entertainer, but at the very core of his being and personality, he’s also an artist who wants to share his art with the world.
It’s something that Siv mentions when asked what his plans and goals for the new year are: ‘I just want to work. I just want to create beautiful work that I am proud of.’ The spotlight was shining brightly on Siv in 2022 and it’s a year that he describes as ‘filled with incredible ups and unbelievable lows’.
Weeks before the release of the Hollywood blockbuster The Woman King, in which he plays the role of The Migan, his mother Jacqueline Ngesi (67) passed away. While he was celebrating raising the curtain on the big screen, Siv had to deal with the biggest loss he has ever experienced. Siv says: ‘After losing my mother, it felt like everything was taken away from me and everything became so real.’
‘But when The Woman King came out, it was definitely the best time of my life at the same time. The entire year can be summed up for me as Congratulations and Condolences.’
His entire life, every milestone and achievement was dedicated to his mother. He says he soon realised that his life would never be the same: ‘I have learnt that I was doing everything for her and now I’m having to relearn how to do things for myself and achieve greatness for myself. I have always been striving for greatness for her and now I have to learn to do everything for myself.
Siv has never hidden from the public eye, so even during his time of grief he was open and honest on social media and with friends and family.
He says: ‘Many people have been sharing their innermost deepest fears with me, especially about death. I spoke to a woman recently who lost her mother and I told her: “You’re gonna go through a war, you’re gonna be in the trenches and it’s something I don’t wish upon my worst enemy. I wish I could tell you it’s going to be easy, but it isn’t”.
Carrying this pain is not something Siv shies away from, in fact he almost uses it as fuel to carry on. At one point when the conversation turns to achievements, past and present he says: ‘I would give it all up to have her (my mother) back.’
His positive energy never wavers, though, and this is the spirit in which Siv is walking boldly into the new year, and the challenges and achievements that await him.
He says it’s laughable that so many people have only started noticing him now that he starred opposite Viola Davis in The Woman King, when he truly believes that it’s not even his best work.
‘South Africans fascinate me, I have always been creating great local and international work and only now are they paying attention to my acting work,’ says Siv. ‘I don’t care who does it, I just want to work and create beautiful work,’ he adds.
And off-screen it’s hard to keep up with all Siv is getting up to. Just a glance at his social media and it’s clear to see that he barely has any downtime.
His work to advocate for sanitary towels to be made freely available across South Africa gains momentum almost every day. Siv says that one of his ultimate goals is to eradicate period poverty in Africa in the next two years.
‘My biggest passion has been fighting for free sanitary pads and fighting period poverty. Currently, my charity MENstruation Foundation distributes about 33 000 sanitary pads to mostly school girls every month. We have a vending machine system that also helps us reach young girls,’ says Siv.
So when pressed to speak about goals and targets for 2023, he says there is really only one thing he has his sights set on this year. ‘In February or March, we are going to open a factory and manufacture The Agojie Pad, named after the women army in The Woman King,’ says Siv.
He adds that this is going to be one of Africa’s cheapest sanitary pads: ‘It’s going to be R1.75 for a pack of four pads and R3.50 for a pack of eight sanitary pads.Life is unpredictable, and often the unexpected and unexplainable happens when you’ve made plans and set goals. This has never and will never bother Siv.
He has his sights set firmly on the future, even though his journey of grieving the loss of his mother continues. Siv is not letting life get him down and even when he speaks about the year ahead, he is positive and enthusiastic.
Along the way, one of the last things he wants people to describe him as is a role model. ‘I don’t do things to inspire people. I just try and live to the best of my abilities and if anyone does get inspired, then that’s just a by-product’, Siv says.
‘I have no ambition to be a role model and I have no ambition to inspire people. I just want to be who I am and I just want to continue living as truthfully as possible to myself,’ he adds.
Siv Ngesi might be navigating the new year and the future without his soul mate, his mom, by his side, but he is no doubt determined to continue making her proud.
