Chiume began her career as a teacher under apartheid and broke barriers to become an actress of international demand.
A powerhouse of the South African film and television industry has died.
Connie Chiume, who appeared in major roles in TV shows and movies in South Africa and abroad since 1989, passed away Tuesday at Garden City Hospital in Johannesburg. She was 72.
Her family announced the news on social media and asked “for privacy during this difficult period.”
Outside of South Africa, Chiume is best known for her role in the 2018 Marvel megahit Black Panther and its 2022 sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She played Zawavari, the leader of a distinguished Wakandan mining tribe and a member of the Wakanda Tribal Council.
VALERIE MACON/AFP/GETTY
Connie Chiume at the ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ premiere
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Zawavari appears prominently in the scenes in which Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) challenges and eventually battles T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) for the throne.
The role in Black Panther, which came when Chiume was in the fourth decade of her acting career (which itself followed a prior career as a teacher in Johannesburg), was notable on multiple levels. First, it represented a global embrace of her inimitable talents. But more broadly, appearing in a film about an uncolonized African nation continuing to forge its own path as an actress whose career began under apartheid was significant not just for Chiume, but for her whole country.
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Chiume was seen as a trailblazer, and the generations of actors coming up after her are already sharing the ways she inspired them. In an interview with SABC News, fellow South African actress Rami Cheune remarked, “She has left such a huge blueprint for us as entertainers, for up and coming artists in the generations behind her… To look at someone like ‘Mam Connie, I hope we learn be more generous, we learn to be more giving, we take our art more seriously, and we just be kind.”
Beyond the Black Panther films, Chiume starred in more than 100 episodes of the popular South African TV series Rhythm City as the matriarch Mamokete Khuse.
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She rose to fame in 1989 after appearing on the popular TV series Ikolm’ Edwa Yadwa. As apartheid was dismantled around her, Chiume’s star grew, leading her to award-winning roles in series like Soul City and Home Affairs, and films like In My Country, in which she appeared alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Juliette Binoche, and Brendan Gleeson.
She also appeared in Beyoncé‘s 2020 film Black is King, and in 2022 was honored at GQ South Africa‘s Men of the Year awards with a lifetime achievement award.
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