Where have you been, Faye Peters?
In the early 2000s, Vivian Majozi in Generations, brilliantly portrayed by Peters, became an inspirational TV figure by embodying the “dream girlfriend” for millennials.
“I was raised in a community that didn’t celebrate natural hair. Hair was supposed to be straight and blow-dried.”
— Faye Peters
She had more charm than an expensive box of chocolates, and her face card never declined. Jennifer Aniston’s “The Rachel” haircut in Friends had reached peak global popularity, but closer to home “The Vivian Majozi” was the hair inspo for many young women.
Peters’s character was unmatched, and by wearing her voluminous coils with pride, she gave women permission to emulate her. She reached such iconic status in pop culture that inspired musician Sho Madjozi’s stage name.
In my September 2018 interview with the John Cena hitmaker, she shared that growing up she was fondly referred to as Majozi by her cousins because of her resemblance to the Generations character.
After appearing in the series The Wild in 2013, Peters vanished from our TV screens.
In December, I bumped into her at the poolside of The President Hotel in Bantry Bay, Cape Town. She was a front-row guest for the sixth annual Cape Town Resort Collections, wearing an archival Imprint ensemble.
We lock eyes; she hasn’t aged, and it’s love at first sight. They say, “never meet your heroes”. Peters is warm, exuding genuine joy, and we “kiki” the afternoon away like a pair of old pals.
“I loved that character [Majozi] so much,” Peters says. “I felt like she was the strong woman we all want to see ourselves as.”
“I loved working with the calibre of actors that I worked with [on Generations]. I worked with actors that I had watched as a child," she says.
“I was 20. I was the youngest person on the set until the actor who played Noah [Tafadzwa Kuuya] came along. It was enormous pressure on me but also a privilege. To have to find the courage inside myself to level up and not let them down in the scenes. If the scene is going to be good, you have to fire on all cylinders. I had to work with Sello Maake KaNcube, Connie Ferguson and Sthandiwe Kgoroge. I owe them my career.”
Peters returned to SA in 2019, on the eve of the Covid-19 pandemic. She had travelled to more than 50 countries.
She says it was a conscious decision to wear her natural hair onscreen.
“I was raised in a community that didn’t celebrate natural hair. Hair was supposed to be straight and blow-dried. In my rebelliousness I started wearing my Afro — it was take it or leave it,” she says.
“I wasn’t trying to be a role model; it was a resistance within myself. I wanted to be accepted as I am, and I wasn’t going to have any shame. It happened that there were so many who could relate to that.
Peters says that she’s also humbled by being the inspiration for Sho Madjozi’s stage name.
“She’s such a big star, and I’m so proud of her,” Peters says.
“It’s humbling to know the impact Generations had on SA. I appreciate having been part of that era in SA television that shaped popular culture.”
Having also acted in Jozi Streets, Beyond Borders, Oh Schuks ... I’m Gatvol! and Jozi H; Peters says if the right role finds her, she’s open to coming back to acting.
“I would love to play Vivian Majozi again; she is by far my favourite thing that I have done because nothing has been appreciated to that extent.”
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