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Queer Kenyan Cinema Humboldt University of Berlin Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Asian and African Studies Master of Arts Program in African Studies QUEER KENYAN CINEMA An analysis of the films Stories of Our Lives (2014) by Jim Chuchu and Rafiki (2018) by Wanuri Kahiu Master’s thesis by Marc Sebastian Eils Student number 585781 [email protected] Supervisors Prof. Dr. Susanne Gehrmann Dr. Pepetual Mforbe Chiangong Berlin 2020 Copyright Still images from Stories of Our Lives (pp. 30, 35, 41, 56, 61, 64, 73): © The NEST Collective 2014, all rights reserved. Still images from Rafiki (pp. 29, 25, 45, 49, 52, 68): © Big World Cinema / afrobubblegum 2018, all rights reserved. Permission for re-use should be sought from the rights-holders. Except of the above-mentioned still images, this work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license (CC BY-NC-ND): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Acknowledgement I am especially thankful to Jonathan Benton Wilby, Neady Atieno Oduor, and Daniel Koßmann for the proofreading of my thesis and for the numerous critical remarks. I also wish to thank Neema Jodie Ngelime and Boneace Chagara for the fruitful discussions and their helpful comments. Last but not least, I am very grateful for the supervision by Susanne Gehrmann and Pepetual Mforbe Chiangong, as well as for their teaching and guidance throughout my studies. Asanteni sana! Declaration I hereby declare that my thesis is the result of my own work and that I have marked all sources, including online sources, which have been cited without changes or in modified form, especially sources of texts, graphics, tables and pictures. I assure that I have not submitted this thesis for any other examination yet. I am aware that in case of any breach of these rules procedures concerning fraud or at- tempted fraud will be taken in accordance with the subject-specific examination regula- tions and/or the Allgemeine Satzung für Studien- und Prüfungsangelegenheiten (ASSP) or the Allgemeine Satzung zur Regelung von Zulassung, Studium und Prüfung der Hum- boldt-Universität zu Berlin (ZSP-HU). Berlin, September 11th, 2020 Marc Sebastian Eils Table of Contents 1. Introduction...................................................................................................................1 2. Background, Theory and Methodology.........................................................................4 2.1 Queer Kenyan Literature.................................................................................5 2.2 Queer African Cinema.....................................................................................8 2.3 Queer Film Analysis......................................................................................11 3. Analysis: Rafiki and Stories of Our Lives....................................................................13 3.1 Characters......................................................................................................17 3.1.1 Protagonists................................................................................................18 3.1.2 Parents........................................................................................................24 3.1.3 Friends........................................................................................................29 3.2 Structures.......................................................................................................38 3.2.1 State and Society........................................................................................38 3.2.2 Religion and Tradition................................................................................48 3.2.3 Race and Class............................................................................................54 3.3 Spaces............................................................................................................60 3.3.1 Boarding school..........................................................................................60 3.3.2 Night club...................................................................................................64 3.3.3 Matatu.........................................................................................................67 3.3.4 Utopia.........................................................................................................70 4. Conclusion...................................................................................................................74 5. Filmography.................................................................................................................79 6. Bibliography................................................................................................................80 1. Introduction When the film Nairobi Half Life had its premiere in Kenya back in 2012, one scene was highly debated. The main character Mwas is a thespian by day and a car-jacker by night. During a theatre rehearsal he sits in a box with his fellow actor Cedric and reflects on his life: “I am having this strange double life. It feels like I have to live like two differ- ent people every day” (Gitonga 2012: 01:08:10). As a homosexual man in a country where he must constantly hide his love for men, Cedric can relate to Mwas’ feelings. He misinterprets this as a coming-out confession and replies: “I know exactly what you mean”, while trying to kiss Mwas. The latter is confused and leaves the box abruptly. Although only in a tiny subplot, Nairobi Half Life managed to shed some light upon the lives of queer Kenyans. A few years later, Stories of Our Lives and Rafiki are the first narrative feature films to centre these queer experiences. In 2014, the first queer Kenyan feature film Stories of Our Lives by the mul- tidisciplinary arts collective The NEST had its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival and was later screened at Berlin International Film Festival. Stories of Our Lives consists of five short films narrating experiences of their gay and lesbian main characters: from a high school love to falling for a best friend, from brutal viol- ence to meeting a male escort. The members of the collective feared legal persecution in their home country and decided to remain anonymous. Eventually three of them – Jim Chuchu, George Gachara and Njoki Ngumi – revealed their identities after the premiere. The executive producer George Gachara was imprisoned upon his return to Kenya and charged for shooting without a filming permit. The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) restricted the distribution, exhibition and broadcasting of the film by arguing that it “has obscenity, explicit scenes of sexual activities and it promotes homosexuality which is contrary to our national norms and values” (KFCB 2014). In 2018, the second queer Kenyan feature film Rafiki by filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and afterwards won many awards at film festivals around the world. The film tells the story of Kena (Samantha Mugatsia) and Ziki (Sheila Munyiva), two young women living in Nairobi, who fall in love despite their homophobic environment and their fathers’ political rivalry. The film is loosely based on the short story “Jambula Tree” (2006) by Ugandan writer Monica Arac de Nyeko, who won the Caine Prize for African Writing for it. Like Stories of Our - 1 - Lives, Rafiki was banned by the Kenya Film Classification Board because it “contains homosexual scenes that run counter to the law, the culture and the moral values of the Kenyan people. Indeed, it is our considered view that the moral of the story in this film is to legitimize lesbianism in Kenya” (KFCB 2018). Wanuri Kahiu decided not to re- edit the film according to the board’s wishes and instead filed a court case against the ban. The High Court of Kenya lifted the ban for seven days to make it eligible for a sub- mission to the Academy Awards. Rafiki was screened in sold-out cinemas across the country but did not receive a nomination as Kenya’s entry to the Oscars. The KFCB justifies the ban of the two films with both cultural and legal reasons. Identifying as homo-, bi-, trans- or intersexual is not a crime in Kenya, however same- sex sexual intercourse and other sexual activities are prohibited. The colonial inherited section 162 of the Kenyan Penal Code states: “Any person who has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature; or […] permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years” (Kenya Law 2012: 62). This affects people of all sex and gender. Additionally, section 165 criminalizes “[i]ndecent practices between males” (Kenya Law 2012: 63), which can be penalised with imprisonment for five years. Activ- ists from different Kenyan gay and lesbian human rights organizations brought a case before the High Court of Kenya to abolish these sections and to decriminalize the private, consensual sexual relations of people of the same sex. To create public aware- ness for the struggle of Kenya’s queer community, they started the campaign #Re- peal162 (NGLHRC 2019). In his book Facing Mount Kenya, Kenya’s first president after independence, Jomo Kenyatta, writes that “the practice of homosexuality is unknown among the Gĩkũyũ” (1938: 162). Evan Mwangi notes that Kenyatta forgets to mention that mar- riages among two women were very common in the Gĩkũyũ community and there was
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