WANURI KAHIU Tales of joy with the celebrated filmmaker

Wanuri Kahiu

“We have to see ourselves as people of joy,” asserts Wanuri Kahiu. “We are not naturally remorseful people. There are stories of joy throughout Africa’s history — our cultures, myths, kingdoms and legends. All we have to do is claim them.” This mantra has always powered the acclaimed Nairobi-based filmmaker and author’s work. That and what she calls “world creation” — imagining new domains through her narratives and then seducing the audience into believing wholeheartedly in them.

Since graduating from The University of California, Kahiu’s award-winning films have included her first feature From A Whisper, the sci-fi short Pumzi and For Our Land, a documentary on activist and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai. Kahiu is also co-founder of Afrobubblegum, a media-company-cum-global movement that creates ‘fun, fierce and frivolous African art’.

“Why, as African artists, does our work have to be associated with seriousness or subjects considered important? Why can’t it just be associated with imagination?” she insists. But that’s not to say her work does not cause change. Most recently, her sensitively told queer love story Rafiki — Kenya’s first entry in the official section at Festival de Cannes, in 2018 — was hailed internationally, while being banned from cinemas at home for daring to show two beautiful souls of the same sex find each other in an unforgiving society. Nataal met Kahiu at Design Indaba 2019, where she revealed some of the African fables, including her own, that bring hope and happiness.

RAFIKI “I’m not an activist, so being thrown into that space once the fi lm was banned was a huge challenge. But we took the classifi cation board to court for infringing Kenya’s constitutional right of free speech and managed to get the ban lifted for seven days. That was wonderful. Every screening was sold out. And the support we received from the LGBTQ community was really beautiful. So many queer people said they were glad to see themselves represented on screen, that they’d never felt seen or valued before. That was my biggest takeaway. I want to add value and I want to continue to be in service of the art that is fi lmmaking.”

PUMZI “This is a film about a young girl called Asha who is a conduit for nature. The idea was to show black women in the role of Mother Nature. As a fan of Wangari Maathai, someone who was seen as a revolutionary for going out and planting trees, all I could do was celebrate her courage. Asha lives in the inside world because the outside world is dead, and she builds a virtual Natural Museum. One day she receives a sample of soil, she plants a seed and it starts to grow, so she decides to venture outside.”

JENGU “Jengus are mermaids from Cameroon. They are bushy haired, gap-toothed water spirits who live in the oceans, seas and rivers. Those who worship them receive good luck. They’re also allies of people who protect nature. We need to imagine that there are more of us who can conjure up water and change nature as a result, that there are creatures who show themselves in this beautifully curious, African way.” NINKI NANKA “Ninki Nankas are glorious dragons from Gambia. They have long necks similar to a giraffe, three horns on top of their heads, the face of a horse and live in swamps. There are stories of naughty children who would get swallowed by Ninki Nankas, which also have glassy scales and can spit fire. They haven’t been discovered yet but there is still hope.” AFRICAN PHOTO COMICS “These were hugely popular comics created between the 1960s and 1980s. They were written in Nigeria, shot in Swaziland and distributed in Kenya, Ghana and South Africa by Drum magazine. They were about Son of Samson, Cobra and The Spear, and were brimming with African superheroes in spandex. The fact that these were full of pan-African images of joy during Apartheid and just after independence is extraordinary to me. They have such life and help us see ourselves as people of radical hope.”