Thuli Dumakude

Thuli Daisy Dumakude is a South African-born singer-songwriter and actress whose Broadway career spanned from the mid-1980s through the late 1990s. Born in Lamontville, South Africa, Dumakude began her performing career in her home country before relocating to the United States in 1979 alongside her husband, Welcome Msomi, with whom she established the Izulu Dance Theater.

Among her earliest and most celebrated stage roles was the title character in Poppie Nongena, an English-language theatrical adaptation of Elsa Joubert's novel Die swerfjare van Poppie Nongena. The production earned Dumakude a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Play in 1983, and her subsequent performance in the London staging brought her the Laurence Olivier Award for Actress of the Year in a New Play in 1984. The show also traveled to Toronto, Australia, and Chicago, as well as to London. Prior to her work in Poppie Nongena, Dumakude had performed the role of KaMadonsela, the Lady Macbeth figure in a Zulu-language adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, a production that also traveled to Chicago.

In 1988, Dumakude joined the cast of Julie Taymor's Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass. Her Broadway credit in Roza came in 1993, when she participated in the world premiere of Gary and Bécaud's production, performing as Woman and serving as a standby for the role of Madame Bouaffa. She also contributed to the original Broadway production of Sarafina! in the capacity of vocal coach.

In 1992, Dumakude created the one-woman show Buya Africa, for which she received three AUDELCO Awards in New York, recognizing her work as writer, director, and performer. That same year, she contributed to the soundtrack of the film The Power of One, having previously helped compose the score for the 1987 drama Cry Freedom. Her two studio albums are Senzeni na?, released in 1992, and Thina Sobabili, recorded with Mthakathi Ema and released in 2005.

Dumakude joined The Lion King in 1998 as a replacement for Tsidii Le Loka in the role of Rafiki, again working under Taymor's direction. She remained with the production for three years, departing in 2001 and being succeeded by Sheila Gibbs. It was at Dumakude's suggestion that Taymor chose to make Rafiki a female character and to cast South African artists in the show. In 2009, Dumakude appeared in a revival of Duma Ndlovu's 1989 production Sheila's Day, playing the role of Qeduszi alongside fellow Lion King cast members Selloane Nkhela and Futhi Mhlongo. She appeared in debbie tucker green's generations in 2014.

During the apartheid era, Dumakude performed musical concerts internationally to draw attention to conditions in South Africa. She worked with singer Miriam Makeba and performed before President Nelson Mandela at his 80th birthday celebration. Her charitable activities have included work with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and an initiative through which she organized a group of twenty South African rural women to produce beadwork sold to New York theatergoers, with proceeds directed toward South African AIDS organizations.