If you can’t think of any Zambian public figures, you may not be alone. Aside from award winning novelist Dambiso Moyo, or songstress Samantha Mumba, Zambia’s international exports on have been rather scant. The young actress, Gloria Huwiler on the other hand isn’t just Zambian; she’s a mixture of English, Scottish, Malawian and Zambian, plus a good dash of Swiss German, the result of Zambia’s colonial past and the Euros who since independence have made Africa their home. It’s little wonder LA casting directors weren’t entirely sure what to do with her, too pale to be cast in traditional ‘black’ roles, but undoubtedly too ethnic to be Caucasian, with a foreign accent and an untraditional background growing up the Africa… she fits into a grey area unexplored by mainstream Hollywood. Strangely, and much to her surprise she found her place in a Turkish independent film “And the Circus Leaves Town” by director Mete Sozer playing an exotic temptress and magical creature who embodied all of a village’s repressed desires, where her ethnic ambiguity was, in fact, her appeal.
As demographics shift, racial mixes, and the hybrid identity they inhabit will undoubtedly be an ever-present part of our reality, and it’s time our media started to reflect this diversity. Seeing the dearth of roles, not just for black actors, but all the spaces in between, Gloria turned her hand to writing to create roles for voices likes hers that remain relatively unheard. Her focus, her home country of Zambia, and the complexity of the social and racial dynamics of post-colonial Africa. Gloria is not alone however, and part of a movement of young Africans locally and in the Diaspora committed to changing the prevalent narrative of their home; to telling stories on their own terms on various platforms. They are committed not only to finding a space for themselves, but creating one that reflects their experience. An identity that refuses to be categorized or stereotyped, but encompasses the myriad of influences and colors that define who they are today; a group that ultimately will be the face of the future.
Check out the newly released trailer for Turkish indy “And The Circus Leaves Town” below…
For more on this wonderful actress please follow her Instagram below:
Glorias website is HERE
