Kowethu is a South African television drama series created by Linda Bere and Chisanga Kabinga and produced by Doppelganger Productions which follows a group of strangers brought together under unusual circumstances in a rural village called Kowethu, who decide - for a variety of different reasons - to stay in the town as fugitives, each of them hiding from something in their past.
Kowethu is about the arrival of strangers, running away from their pasts and looking to start a new life, in an obscure village street... somewhere in the region between KZN and the Eastern Cape. Will these fugitives find here in Kowethu village what they're looking for?
The series begins when one night a bakkie crashes into a roadside hair salon after a tyre bursts. Hoping to avoid the consequences the driver speeds off and leaves his passengers in the dust.
The police arrive and the passengers run off into the night, not wanting to face the cops. For varying reasons, these characters decide to stay in Kowethu for the time being and make lives for themselves.
Choosing to stay comes with its own challenges and perils and leaves these strangers - and Kowethu - forever changed.
Abraham Maslow suggested that the need to belong was a major source of human motivation. He claimed we are all innately social beings. We have a natural need to form strong stable relationships with other people and we need to be part of something greater than ourselves.
Kowethu explores the struggle to form bonds and meet this fundamental need. It is about the lengths the human heart will go either to satisfy or deny this need.
The cast includes Atandwa Kani as Sibu Mahlangu, Thando Thabethe as Sazi, Vuyo Dabula as Mothusi, Yule Masiteng as Petrus, Charmaine Mtinta as Nomabhongo, Lali Dangazele as Thandeka, Wandile Molebatsi as Sakhumzi, Amanda du Pont as Candice, Warren Masemola as Momo, Thato Molamu as Musa and Vatiswa Ndara as Nothende.
Created and written by Linda Bere and Chisanga Kabinga and produced by Doppelganger Productions, the series is directed by Rolie Nikiwe. The title music is by Musawenkosi 'MSA' Chubeka.