The Polygamist Gave S'Dumo Mtshali The Role of a Lifetime

For the millions of people who recently met Jonasi Gomora in the widely successful new Netflix series The Polygamist, it might take some time to reconcile that steely, relentlessly devious character with the soft-spoken, cheery S’dumo Mtshali — the man who plays him. 

The Polygamist is a South African isiZulu telenovela adapted from Zimbabwean author Sue Nyathi’s novel of the same name, which has captured the world’s attention and traveled beyond African shores to attract a global audience. It follows a wealthy South African family whose picture-perfect life buckles as the secrets of their father, Jonasi, played by Mtshali, come to light. Jonasi, with his litany of misdeeds and conniving nature, has quickly become a shorthand for badly behaved men. Such is the rapid impact this series and Mtshali’s intensely believable performance have had on culture.

“I remember at the airport, meeting people praising the fact that [we’ve] opened a dialogue at home,” Mtshali tells OkayAfrica. “I was getting men who were at the point of change, saying I've cheated on my wife, and I'm now seeing the pain I put her through. On TikTok, I saw a man apologizing to his wife, saying, ‘Wow, I put you in so much pain. I know it wasn't as bad as Jonasi, but I know what I did, how I cheated on you, how I hurt you, how I almost destroyed this family, what that means.’ So the show has done more than I could ever dream.”

Much of the appeal of The Polygamist lies in the specificity of its story and the characters' intense plausibility. It’s occasionally but always justifiably melodramatic in its exploration of infidelity, dishonesty, familial discord, and the acute despair of unrequited love. It’s also a story that refuses to be palatable, with dialogue delivered in a mix of isiZulu, English, other South African languages, and slang. It is no wonder that it raked in 7.7 million views in its second week of release, while maintaining the No. 2 spot globally. It has been praised by viewers from around the world, including U.S actresses like Sherri Shepherd and Taraji P. Henson. It is incredibly rare for an African Netflix production to travel at such speed and resonate beyond cultural boundaries. Mtshali strongly believes the magic is in the story and, of course, in the gaze through which it was told.

“At first, I was just happy to get a role, but then you realize this is proper material here. I was just excited. I was more excited because I knew that the South African audience would definitely get this,” he says. “This is for them,” he says. Mtshali says he has been in projects with similar storylines about polygamy: “And I knew that, oh, no, this will definitely hit South Africa, but I didn't expect the world to gravitate and be so moved. I've always said that a good story gets you more than having some of the most expensive, talented actors.”

Being Jonasi

Not many things about The Polygamist are typical of a Netflix series, especially in this streaming era. There are 22 episodes; the series sprawls with ambition, and in many ways, the characters are drawn with a startling sharpness that makes them land on the heart like painful reminders. In the case of Jonasi, Mtshali says he drew from real-life characters around him.

“We already knew who they were. The references were always there. We know these people; they are politicians, they are fathers, they are brothers, uncles. So  I'd seen Jonasi everywhere around me,” Mtshali explains.

Many scenes in this series perfectly illustrate the pain of having a father whose attention is constantly divided between his different families, and a husband whose insatiable nature causes a constant rift that morphs into resentment, made even harder by the fact that, out in the world, they present a stable, beguiling face. 

As we watch Jonasi’s secrets unravel, we are also led into the lives of the women around him: Joyce, his first wife (played by Gugu Gumede); Essi his second wife (played by Celeste Ntuli); Matipa his third wife (played by Kwanele Mthethwa); the sprawling list of other women he maintains affairs with and the emotional disrepair he leaves them all in.

Despite drawing from real-life people who mirror Jonasi, Mtshali says the character doesn’t validate the narrative that Black South African men aren’t safe partners. 

“There are safe partners,” Mtshali says. “[I’ve heard from] women saying, ‘My father was like this, but my husband is not. My husband is something that I've dreamt of.  I'm glad my brother is not like this because it also takes a village to raise a child.’ If you come from a family that doesn't know love, like Jonasi, that doesn't know the importance of a relationship and creating longevity, not just financially, but also, you know, in the growth of families, family structure,  then you're going to have a lot of Jonasis, but it's up to us to break that cycle.”

Ultimately, this role is a home run for an actor who has been working in the South African film and theatre industry for over a decade now. “The dream that I had was to tell South African stories at its highest level. It's been a dream of mine to just have Black excellence in film and television,” Mtshali says. “So it's that chase. And that still requires me to work with the best from everywhere, from every corner of the world, to create that. That's my dream.”

Mtshali sees the success of The Polygamist shifting how the global audience consumes original African productions and could further validate the unimportance of making works that dilute African specificity in a bid to appeal to the global audience.

“We do need people in positions that understand, and we need to teach each other. That's why we need people from all over the world so we can  work together and create something great.”