“Being told you’re ugly is not nice,” Maumela Mahuwa says.
She is the famous Muvhango actress who plays the role of the Chief’s wife, Susan. Maumela opened up to DRUM about her childhood struggles, being rejected and how she overcame the stigma of being called ugly after an influential man told her she was “a beautiful African child”.
“When I agreed with them that I was ugly, I stopped loving myself… When you are told you are too dark, short, your nose is flat and your lips are too big, you start to believe you are really ugly. I saw nothing beautiful in me,” an emotional Maumela says.
The 36-year-old actress who also had issues with her late mother says it took her 12 years to work through her self-esteem issues.
Read more in this week’s DRUM on how she overcame the “ugly” stigma, poverty and learnt to love herself.
