Actor

South African actor Presley Chweneyagae became an internationally recognized star when his title role in the compelling drama Tsotsi helped the film win an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 2005. The story tracked the personal redemption of a tough Johannesburg gang leader in a violent, post-apartheid era. New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis noted the “charismatic newcomer … delivers a fine, sympathetic performance, and you root for the actor even when his character inspires unforgiving thoughts.”Born Under Apartheid

Chweneyagae, whose name is pronounced “Shwen-NAY-ah-hi-eh,” was born in October of 1984 in North West Province, the modern name of a newly created unit that merged parts of Transvaal and Cape Province with Bophuthatswana, one of the former Bantustans, or black areas, of South Africa’s apartheid era. Chweneyagae was at a time when his nation was an international pariah for its draconian statutes that separated a ruling white minority from the majority black population, and denied the latter nearly all political rights. South Africa’s blacks were confined to the homelands or townships adjacent to major cities, where they lived in abysmal, near-medieval conditions, and were required to carry a pass, or identity card, at all times and show it on demand. Under apartheid, South African law also provided for detention without