Connie Ferguson: Beauty Comes from the Heart

Having 4,8 million followers on Instagram, Connie Ferguson’s hashtags include #TheQueenMzansi #TheThroneMzansi #ConnieBodyCare.

Growing up in the remote Lobatse, Botswana, Ferguson recalls how active she was as a youth. As a family, they did martial arts and she did a little ballroom dancing. “My Dad would make us do anything that would keep us off the streets,” she recalls.

At school, she did drama and literature, and one day her teacher Mr. Byron proclaimed that she was going to be a star. Ferguson believes that he spoke life into her. Given the small town nature of their setting, there was no example of what this “stardom” might mean, but somehow the seed was planted and her path to fame took off soon after she won a beauty pageant as a young teenager. In 1993, she was named one of South Africa’s Ten Most Beautiful Women in Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Ferguson has excelled as an actor, a producer as well as an entrepreneur.

Speaking about her acting career, Ferguson shares that one of her most challenging roles was when as Karabo Moroka in “Generations,” which she starred in from its start in 1993 until 2010, her pregnancy was written into the script, and she lost the baby. She recounted how the storyline had been plotted so far ahead, that they couldn’t re-write that Karabo was now not pregnant.

Ferguson explains, “This meant that I had to play out the pregnancy even in my loss and my grief. I had to go for counselling after that but, if anything, that taught me just how strong we are. Sometimes we go through these traumatic experiences. You don’t want to get out of bed in the morning, and you feel like it’s the end of the world but, I think, all of these experiences brought me closer to God. And just made me believe that there’s always a bigger plan, a bigger picture that may not necessarily align with what I want for myself and, with some of these things, you discover later that maybe it wasn’t meant to be for whatever reason.”

Ferguson also recalls the role of Ausi Mavis in the show “Rockville” (2013), which aired on Mzansi Magic, created and produced by husband and wife team, Ferguson Films. “If there’s one character I’ve played that was very different to the others that would be Ausi Mavis, because she was like the township Mama. She was not a high-end character like the other characters that I’ve played. I enjoyed her so much because I got to dress down. I got to do no makeup. I got to not rely on external factors to bring the character to life; to move and focus more on her soul and her heart.

“Ausi Mavis has so much heart,” Ferguson reveals. “She’s one character that I completely fell in love with, and I feel like I was able to immerse myself in her. I represented all the Mamas in the township that sometimes seem unseen, through her; so, she’s a character that’s very close to my heart. I had to literally forget Connie, and observe all these Mamas – how do they behave, what body language and gestures do they use? I brought all these little innuendoes to her and made her such a special character.”

Alongside her acting career, Ferguson’s personal life has had its fair share of drama and tragedy that she’s had to face. She recalls when she lost her mother in 2013. To her, it felt like the end of the world. Nostalgically, she says: “With my miscarriage, my mom was there for me. She was always my rock. But when I lost her and had to deal with that without her being there to help me, that was something completely new to me. It’s something that I never thought I would get over, but with the support of my family – my husband was amazing – I managed to move on. I still love her in her new form.”

In 2021, Ferguson’s husband Shona Ferguson, aged 47 died of Covid.

“We were together for 20 years when he passed, so I could say I knew him for my whole life – it felt like my whole life. We had been joined at the hip since we met; so, that for me felt like an amputation. I felt like a big part of me had just been ripped from me and I didn’t know how to function without him. For the longest time, I thought I was going crazy because, every time my bedroom door opened, I would imagine it was him and then I would remember, oh no wait, this person is gone. The first two years after his passing were very hard. I think I’m better now, but things were very difficult because I always expected him to pop up somewhere. I could always hear his laughter in my head and sometimes I feel like I’m hallucinating, but I think it’s just the impact that he had in my life.”

Remembering her husband and with regard to her love language, Ferguson says: “I am a giver. I love giving. I’m a very touchy feely person. I love holding hands. I love kissing and I love gifting. I’m that sentimental person.”

Seeking clarity as to whether or not she has moved on romantically, Ferguson laughs about the fact that the internet has her married to, at least, one other man, since the passing of her husband. Ferguson chuckles at this discrepancy saying that she finds this hilarious and funny. “I haven’t remarried. I’m still trying to rediscover who I am without my husband physically here. I’m now at a better place emotionally, a lot more peaceful, and everyday I’m learning to move forward.”

Always one to pick herself up, to keep moving, and to show up for all the personal and public roles that Ferguson achieves, she says: “I literally soak in every moment. I pay attention to detail. I’ve come to realize that these memories at the end of the day end up being all that we have; so, what I have experienced has made me more aware and more present in my day-to-day life.”

As well as this, Ferguson embraces beauty at every opportunity. She says that although she understands about physical beauty, for her, beauty comes from the heart. For Ferguson, there is no greater beauty then someone with a good heart, a warm spirit and a great soul. “When someone walks into a room, and you feel like you want to talk to this person or you want to be near this person, not because of the way they look, but because of how their presence makes you feel. For me, that’s beauty.”

Ferguson loves to exercise, and she thinks that this keeps her mind focused and is good for her mental health. She tries to exercise at least five times a week for an hour to an hour and a half. She enjoys boxing, functional training and skipping. Ferguson points out that she adapts well to change and does not stay “stuck.” “Although I am a creature of habit, if circumstances change, I adapt.“

Given the crisis in the country with regard to gender-based violence, Ferguson stresses that she can’t begin to articulate what she sees taking place. “I can’t wrap my head around it. I can’t make excuses about it, because I know people always come up with reasons saying that this is how this person grew up. But I believe that we can’t let our experiences define who we are. I think sometimes people get away with certain behaviors because they’re not called out. And if you practice something long enough, it becomes ok. You don’t think you’re doing anything wrong.”

Ferguson thinks that we need to hold the perpetrators accountable, whilst not generalizing that men are failures. “I was married to a great man; so, we know that it’s possible for men to be good men.”

With so many accolades, Ferguson credits the key to her success because she loves what she does. She adds: “As well as this, I have diversified in my chosen field.”

Having started as an actress and then becoming a producer, it was evident that it would be challenging to make money just as the latter. With only 8% of the overall production fee that comes to the producer after the project has wrapped up, and the times when one doesn’t have a project, Ferguson realized that life as a producer only was not sustainable.

“The one thing I learned as a producer was to not just be a producer, but to be an entrepreneur, so I created a value chain in the business and was able to grow from more than just a production house to an actual company. We invested in camera equipment; sound equipment; a post-production house and we started providing a lot of other services and did not just rely on the production itself as a means of making income.”

There is a constant spin surrounding Ferguson, who trusts that there is still much for her to explore. She exclaims, “Oh man, I don’t think anybody leaves this earth having done it all because I feel like life is a journey and, as we are evolving, we are always discovering new things about ourselves.”

Aside from a not to be mentioned project that is in the pipeline, potentially for as early as September, Ferguson says that with regard to her unexplored capacities, she would like to run a mentorship program where she is imparting some of her knowledge and using it for good. “I’ve often been told that I have the gift of saying something poignant that has become meaningful and profound to the person I have shared it with. I have been told that something I said has changed someone’s life. So, this might be something that I look to in the future.”