Kizunguzungu

Kizunguzungu, a 35-minute feature film screened at the fourth Lola Kenya Screen Film Forum in Nairobi on March 27, 2006, shows how the emergence of mobile phones, the growing gap between the rich and the poor, and imported western lifestyles contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, writes Bobastles Owino

Although set in Dar es Salaam, this Mwangaza Paul Kang’anga-scripted, directed and produced fiction could fit in any contemporary African society, where the rich—or those perceived to be the best educated and therefore most informed automatically becoming the ‘role models’ even where they do not have enough knowledge about a particular subject—set the socio-cultural pace for the poor.

Starting with ordinary life along the streets of Dar es Salaam, Kang’anga appears to borrow from the western detective movies when she introduces her chief cast, Prof Kabaga, in bits of car door, then shoes coming out, shoes walking, hand holding keys knocking at a door, partially hidden body opening the door, belt slithering off and then pants dropping instead of giving the viewer the whole being of the adulterous university professor at once.

Trapped between African values and western ‘civilisation’, Kang’anga goes round the explicit scene that is expected to follow through shadows of engrossed bodies embracing passionately cast on the wall.

Professor Kabaga specialises in social issues and HIV/AIDS. Though his word is authoritative in Tanzania, we soon realise that his expertise and the way he is revered socially as a professor has also bestowed upon him manipulative tendencies. He ends up preaching water while drinking wine.

Ironically, he is the first to admit that “out of the statistics that seven out of every ten people in Tanzania are HIV positive, a good number of the HIV cases involve university professors and students.”

But even as he lectures about faithfulness or the use of the condom on television programmes across the country, it is clear that few take him and his HIV/AIDS messages seriously. While those who know his behind-the-scenes hanky-panky, especially women he sleeps with, dismiss him as an outright liar, others think that that is just another way the professor and many other ‘AIDS awareness’ activists have devised in order to make money.

This, spectators concurred, is the way HIV/AIDS messages and programmes are often received in many parts of Africa. Unfortunately, the so-called campaigners and experts would have little to crow about considering the snail-pace at which the HIV trend is being reversed.

The advent of mobile phones, if Kizunguzungu is anything to by, appears to have made things easier for the 'Kabagas' of this world on one hand and again complicated life for them on the other. Whereas they can reach their ‘catch’ by simply dialing a number, their loved ones who they believe are protected are reached in the same manner.

In Kizunguzungu and surely elsewhere around us, we find that not having a cellular phone is something unthinkable among the youth. In a bid to have this gadget and obviously other trendy possessions, young people are rendered vulnerable and often fall prey to people whose only motive is to exploit them sexually.

Kang’anga sums it up when, at the end of the film, Kabaga realises that he has been sharing a woman with his son on the day his daughter is diagnosed with the HIV positive virus and the woman he has been sharing with his son is presented to his wife as her prospective daughter-in-law.

Kizunguzungu

The sleeve of Mwangaza Kang’anga’s Kizunguzungu VCD cover

Kizunguzungu, a 35-minute feature film screened at the fourth Lola Kenya Screen Film Forum in Nairobi on March 27, 2006, shows how the emergence of mobile phones, the growing gap between the rich and the poor, and imported western lifestyles contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, writes Bobastles Owino Nondih.

Although set in Dar es Salaam, this Mwangaza Paul Kang’anga-scripted, directed and produced fiction could fit in any contemporary African society, where the rich—or those perceived to be the best educated and therefore most informed automatically becoming the ‘role models’ even where they do not have enough knowledge about a particular subject—set the socio-cultural pace for the poor.

Starting with ordinary life along the streets of Dar es Salaam, Kang’anga appears to borrow from the western detective movies when she introduces her chief cast, Prof Kabaga, in bits of car door, then shoes coming out, shoes walking, hand holding keys knocking at a door, partially hidden body opening the door, belt slithering off and then pants dropping instead of giving the viewer the whole being of the adulterous university professor at once.

Trapped between African values and western ‘civilisation’, Kang’anga goes round the explicit scene that is expected to follow through shadows of engrossed bodies embracing passionately cast on the wall.

Professor Kabaga specialises in social issues and HIV/AIDS. Though his word is authoritative in Tanzania, we soon realise that his expertise and the way he is revered socially as a professor has also bestowed upon him manipulative tendencies. He ends up preaching water while drinking wine.

Ironically, he is the first to admit that “out of the statistics that seven out of every ten people in Tanzania are HIV positive, a good number of the HIV cases involve university professors and students.”

But even as he lectures about faithfulness or the use of the condom on television programmes across the country, it is clear that few take him and his HIV/AIDS messages seriously. While those who know his behind-the-scenes hanky-panky, especially women he sleeps with, dismiss him as an outright liar, others think that that is just another way the professor and many other ‘AIDS awareness’ activists have devised in order to make money.

This, spectators concurred, is the way HIV/AIDS messages and programmes are often received in many parts of Africa. Unfortunately, the so-called campaigners and experts would have little to crow about considering the snail-pace at which the HIV trend is being reversed.

The advent of mobile phones, if Kizunguzungu is anything to by, appears to have made things easier for the 'Kabagas' of this world on one hand and again complicated life for them on the other. Whereas they can reach their ‘catch’ by simply dialing a number, their loved ones who they believe are protected are reached in the same manner.

In Kizunguzungu and surely elsewhere around us, we find that not having a cellular phone is something unthinkable among the youth. In a bid to have this gadget and obviously other trendy possessions, young people are rendered vulnerable and often fall prey to people whose only motive is to exploit them sexually.

Kang’anga sums it up when, at the end of the film, Kabaga realises that he has been sharing a woman with his son on the day his daughter is diagnosed with the HIV positive virus and the woman he has been sharing with his son is presented to his wife as her prospective daughter-in-law.

Kizunguzungu was screened in Nairobi’s Goethe-Institut during the fourth Lola Kenya Screen monthly film forum, a project that works at publicising and popularising local film productions besides inculcating film-going culture amongst local populace. This is in the run up to the Lola Kenya Screen annual film festival, production workshop and market whose inaugural event is set for August 7-12, 2006 in Nairobi.

By April 10, five days away from the April 15 film entry submission deadline, films from 29 nations had been received at Lola Kenya Screen.

Many award-winning and well crafted films have come in from Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Tanzania, Congo-Kinshasa, South Africa, India, Greece, Philippines, Taiwan, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Britain, Scotland, Canada, USA, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, France, Italy, Singapore, Spain, Kenya, Iran, and Japan. Details and entry information is available online at http://www.artmatters.info/lola.htm.

Speaking at the Lola Kenya Screen Film Forum after the show, Prof. Dr. Mathias Krings of Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, said that “Kang’anga succeeded in passing her message despite the fact that she leaves it open-ended.”

He added: “In leaving the film open-ended, spectators are given a chance to think widely about many ‘what ifs’ and this triggers public discussion other than the typical AIDS messages when you feel like a gun is put on your head and you are told, ‘Use the condom’, ‘Be faithful’ or ‘Abstain’.”

However some viewers felt that Kang’anga should have spelt out clearly her preferred message.

Also present at the LKSFF was Prof Wolfgang Bender of the Institute of Ethnology and African Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. He was accompanied by Boehme Claudia, a post graduate student.

Prof Bender, being a music expert, wondered why “no credits were given to the great music which graciously added enormous value to the whole film.”

But perhaps Kang’anga’s glaring shortcoming in Kizunguzungu remains the grammatical errors and wrongly constructed English used in the sub-titles. It would have been better for the film if she engaged services of someone with a good command of English in order to give her sub-titles value.

Kang’anga, 32, is a post-graduate student at the University of Dar es Salaam specialising in theatre and film. She works as a performer, writer, director, producer and presenter in Tanzania. She produces and presents Ngoma Zetu, a cultural programme aired by Tanzania national television, Televisheni ya Taifa (TVT).

Saying theatre and film overlap, Kang’anga says Kizunguzungu was her class project and that it was a collaborative effort of students in her department. “The project began in July 2005 and I spent about US$100 on it. I am grateful to Landmark Hotel, Coast Garden and Paradise Resort in Bagamoyo for the support they accorded me,” she says of Kizunguzungu in which she also stars.

Meanwhile, the 5th Lola Kenya Screen screened Shoot Back on April 5, 2006. This is an 85-minute documentary directed by Michael Trabitzch in Mathare, Nairobi.

Although not following any plot, Shoot Back captures the realities of life and specific stories of poverty, suffering, determination, resignation, neglect, love and inspiration.

Impressed, Winnie Kamau of UN-HABITAT said: “This needs to be showcased not only around the world, but also within the slums. Most film productions about slums are donor-focused and are too superficial. The screenings should not stop here; we need to be told how to get copies.”

Most viewers during the forum appealed to local television stations and production houses to contribute to the development of youth in Mathare by tapping into the talent shown by the youth who filmed Shoot Back by giving them assignments. “They have proved that they are great cameramen who would be very useful to television stations and production houses,” said Maurice Ndagwa of Blue Sky Films and Patricia Musyimi of 3Mice Interactive Media with other participants echoing these sentiments.

Bobastles Owino Nondih is Festival Manager of Lola Kenya Screen. Additional reporting by Ogova Ondego.

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