OPINION | At this point 'The Wife' has gone rogue, that Naledi is just not the one

This opinion piece has been a long time coming. I stopped myself a couple of times from writing it because I know that as a person who read the books my bias is clear.

Yes, I read the brilliantly written first books in the Hlomu book series: Hlomu: The Wife, Zandile: The Resolute and Naledi: His Love. I read them a couple of times over the years. I followed Dudu Busani-Dube on the socials way back when and joined the Facebook fan pages filled with women and men who loved Dudu's storytelling. Look, I am a “Mbuba wife” fan through and through.

Having seen our (by our, I mean people who read the books) reactions to the amount of stretching Showmax and Stained Glass and co did to the book, you already know what the essence of this piece is.

I beg you to indulge me, though, because this is not just me being petty or expressing my profound disappointment in how the TV series botched the books. It is more about how they tried — unprovoked — to fix a story that didn't need fixing, how they abused creative freedom and, more importantly, how they managed to ignore the essence of the books and missed an opportunity to tell a great story.

This is not to say The Wife — without my book bias — is a bad series or that the cast and crew failed to bring us a quality product in terms of how they told the story they chose to tell. They were good. But that “inspired by Dudu Busani-Dube” needs to be bailed out because they are reaching at this point. The story they are telling is their own.

My people (fellow readers) agree that the real stars of the books were always the wives, not the Zulu brothers, no matter how you may be tempted to think they are the focus. The eight bug-eyed, identical brothers who drove taxis and pulled off heists behind the scenes provide the action, the colour, but the women in their lives, they were always the point of the books.

I won't tell you how many moments from the book I wished Stained Glass and co had seen as worthy enough to bring to life and how many of the changes I felt were unnecessary. They were and remain too many to count.

I will tell you, though, turning Hlomu into a naive, weak-minded, promiscuous woman instead of the ambitious, put-together matriarch of the Zulu family — the glue that holds them together when their brotherhood fails — left me disheartened. The book created Hlomu to be a woman you wanted to respect, the series not so much.

Zandile aka the beautiful creature's story was watered down dramatically to include aspects her story didn't need. They let their imagination run wild because the OG Zandile's character was shaped by trauma and a tough upbringing that put her in prison for murder. She needed to be introduced properly so viewers can understand what make her “the resolute”. So far all we have is the love she has for Nkosana, petty jealousy towards Hlomu, oh and the uber-explicit sex scene, I guess...

The last straw, though, is Naledi. Stained Glass and co had one job. To cast a properly plus size woman for the role. One measly job and they failed.

Dudu, in a tweet posted last year in response to a fan, said “Naledi is thick, fat, if we are to be frank. The whole point of her story was to bring women body politics into the picture, into the conversation. She's a size 40/42.”

Naledi — the OG Naledi — had a really important role to play and it was hugely dependent on how she looks, her body type and aesthetic.

By now we know that Stained Glass and co don't care about the readers' expectations. They've made that abundantly clear and it's OK.

The question now is, do they not care for the point Naledi was supposed to drive across? Do they not care that plus size woman looked to be represented through her character?

How Naledi looks matters for the story. Gaisang K Noge, the actress they cast for the role, is beautiful and based on her previous work, obviously talented. But she's just not Naledi, at least not for the purpose the character of Naledi was created. 

In Naledi: His Love, Qhawe falls in love with the brilliant but stubborn doctor. She's royalty and treats herself as such, but not when she loves. Having been in an abusive relationship where her ex abused her physically, mentally and emotionally, using her big body to bully her and make her believe she was unworthy of love, Qhawe comes in and loves her as she is. It's a beautiful story, especially at the point where she begins to see herself through Qhawe's love.

Even if Stained Glass and co chose to tell that part of the story it won't be authentic with Gaisang as Naledi. Thick women are accepted these days. Even more since Kim Kardashian and squad made the hourglass body type the goal for most women — having curves and a small waist is the desired aesthetic.

The reality is different for fat girls, forgive my being frank. They are still body shamed worldwide for their love handles, flabby arms and pot bellies.

This is exactly why Naledi needed to to be fat and be loved by Qhawe for all to see.

This is a story we need to see on SA television. 

I am one of the people hoping that Dudu didn't sell all the rights to Stained Glass and co because I'm hoping with all my heart that another production house will get a chance to tell the story properly. But that's probably not going to happen, so I'll return to the books, at least there nobody can mess with the brilliance of some of the best work of fiction I have ever read.

It's Thursday, don't forget to watch the new episodes of The Wife... or whatever.