Story by Betty Caplan
Published July 17, 2006

Writer Betty Caplan watches Mji Mkongwe na Watoto documentary at Lola Kenya Screen Film Forum and passes her verdict: it is an example of how not to make a film.

Yellow Giraffe’s Animal Stories 2. This collection of animation films by Antonia Ringbom and Jaana Wahlforss of Finland will be shown at the inaugural Lola Kenya Screen film festival for children and youth in Nairobi, August 7-12, 2006

A television news magazine and a documentary film are worlds apart. As such, taking the two to be synonymous breeds confusion. This is the impression a spectator gets after watching Dr Martin Mhando’s documentary, Mji Mkongwe na Watoto, which means ‘Stone and Children’ in Kiswahili, that was screened during the 8th Lola Kenya Screen Film Forum at Goethe-Institut on May 29, 2006.

The film is introduced by Seif Maalim, a presenter with Zanzibar Television, who also ushers in the viewing, typical of a news magazine. But no sooner has the commentator left than the film, which was supposed to explore children’s attitudes toward conservation in Zanzibar’s Stone Town than the film starts struggling with which way to go.

The documentary opens with wide expositions of the Stone Town’s roofs, details of the exquisite carved designs which make Zanzibar and similar coastal towns such as Lamu unique. But there is nothing about Zanzibari landmarks like House of Wonders, the fish market, the marvelous small winding streets, the slave museum, the houses and courtyards with their characteristic Swahili flavour and design, the coast, the dhows, the culture, or the music.

Despite much talk about rubbish, there isn’t wanton littering or heaps of garbage, a problem that Mhando and his ‘conservation team’ sets out to address in this film, and which comes out only to mainly exist in their imagination. Or the camera misses out on this, too.

Dr Martin Mhando addresses the 3rd Congress on East African Cinema at Amakula Kampala International Film Festival in April 2006. Pic by Morgan Mbabazi

Also conspicuous is the glaring realisation that in this film, conservation means collection of rubbish only. For instance, the filmmaker does not tell us what is being done about the decaying houses which pose a great safety risk to the occupants or ‘the diminishing playgrounds’.

Mji Mkongwe na Watoto is based on the fact that Stone Town is a UNESCO Heritage Site. But we are not told why or what this means for Mji Mkongwe n apart from, perhaps, more tourists poring in. And, in Dr Mhando’s film, however, the visitors who feature prominently are the young Swedish ‘conservationists’ who are part of rubbish collecting team.

Mhando’s first subject is a delightful little girl, Maida Thabit, aged about 7 years, very thoughtful, more than happy to talk and who is totally lacking in self-consciousness.

“I love Stone Town,” she says, putting the accent on town. “I was born here. Doesn’t everyone love where they were born? An American loves America and wants to stay there.”

But Thabit soon grows sad, as she talks about the rubbish and the dangerously decaying buildings.

With Thabit’s entry the film disintegrates into a procession of talking heads, all of whom speak in abstract terms about what should be done and general NGO babble. No children are shown doing anything, although a pompous headmaster informs us that “Not everything children do is childish.”

There aren’t the myriad sounds of Zanzibar, people calling to one another, children reciting portions of the Qu’ran or learning English by rote and in unison. Most embarrassing of all, the group of Swedish youth with blue plastic bags is depicted towards the end as having come specially all that way from Europe to show the Swahili how to pick up rubbish. Other children interviewed say they do not “have playgrounds, dust and rubbish make us sick and broken bottles pose great danger to and often hurt us.” But the viewer is not given any statistics of sicknesses and diseases, people who have been hurt by the hazardous objects, the diminishing playing rounds or the reasons the speakers and filmmaker think their thoughts are enough guide. And this leads to another broken rule in visual and performing arts: Show, don’t tell!

Perhaps it is that kind of dark headedness that prompted many spectators to ask at the end of the viewing: Who was Dr Mhando making the film for?

Blue Willow, a film by Veialu Aila- Unsworth of New Zealand. It will be screened at the inaugural Lola Kenya Screen festival for children and youth in Nairobi, August 7-12, 2006

This subject came up afterwards in the discussion which was far more interesting than the film. Various practitioners and amateurs had gathered determined not to be led down this path of the made-for-NGO subject film.

“We want to tell stories that are authentic about our respective places. There is an audience out there and it doesn’t have to be dictated by commercial cinemas like Nu-Metro or Fox Theatres,” a participant said.

In the bid to catch up with this, viewers at the forum appeared to agree that local filmmakers will have to stop going the NGO way and start pursuing creativity that is undeterred or watered down by considerations for funding from donors.

“Filmmakers should come up with irresistibly creative projects then pitch them to funding organisations, who, when interested, should not be allowed to introduce his own ideas that might not be creative and thus would water-down creativity,” said another viewer, Kabinda Lemba.

Additional reporting by Bobastles Owino Nondih

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