Rafiki directed by Wanuri Kahiu, is a beautiful film about two Kenyan women in love in a county where homosexuality is illegal, and Church, State and Society are violently opposed to queer people living happily. Nominated at Cannes, Kahiu’s award-winning vision is timeless, with overnotes of Romeo and Juliet. “Two houses alike in dignity…” and all that, but with some deeper messaging.

Kena Mwaura is one of the guys but she, like most tomboys, is not at all one of the guys. Ziki Okemi is a very pretty girl, whose father just happens to be running against Kena’s father for the local County Assembly position. Kena and Ziki fall in love. It’s charming and sweet. You watch them wanting to cocoon them away from the derision and harm that you just know is waiting for them out in the real world. When it lands, all we can do it watch and wait…and hope.

As we watch, it becomes clear that there are several layers of storytelling unfolding. There is the clear message that the demons are in the haters, not the hated. The anger, the intolerance, the disdain, the rejection, the violence, that is where the demonic influence is. Love is…love.  Love brings joy and wholeness, but hate makes us bilious,and causes us to hurt others…which one is the one that is holy, really. It’s not subtle. Church, State and Society all look like the jerks that they are.

And there is the equally unsubtle story about two fathers, for whom wives and daughters are symbolic tools, not actual humans. Thankfully, here, the families are given room to grow, and both fathers and mothers change, at least a little. 

But there’s one more layer and this one really struck me hard – the mean smallness of society’s vision for what women should want and how men and women become enraged when younger generations just refuse to see that mean, small, barely human existence as “enough.” Blacksta, Kena’s friend, is honestly confused when Kena doesn’t seem interested in becoming his wife. “Isn’t that what everyone wants?” (At which point, I thought, in story after story after story, the villagers remain gormless. Why would Cinderella ever want something different, or Mu Lan?) The fact is, that the smallest and meanest of visions for what we “should” want is still prevalent. In the movie press kit, Kahiu says,

“While filming,we challenged deep-rooted cynicism about same-sex relations among the actors, crew and continue to do so with friends, relatives and larger society. RAFIKI brings to the forefront conversations about love, choice and freedom. Not only freedom to love but also the freedom to create stories.”

It was that theme of freedom I loved best about Rafiki. These themes were addressed at a price. In a 2019 interview with the Guardian, Kahiu speaks of the harassment she has faced, sometimes from people she loves.

The censors were not at all happy with Kahiu’s vision, either. “They felt it was too hopeful. They said if I changed the ending to show her [the main character Kena] looking remorseful, they would give me an 18 rating.” Kahiu declined and so, as the final framed play, Kena and Ziki do not end up dead, or some other more traditionally depressing ending. I will rejoice when “death or marriage” is so completely confusing an idea to young queer folks, since not having a happily-ever-after ended would be unthinkable. ^_^

Samantha Mugatsia’s Kena is fantastic. You just want to invite her over to kick back and let her relax a bit, and while it took me longer than Kena to trust Sheila Munyiva’s Ziki, I think she did a fantastic job of acting.

Overall a very solid movie. A few weeks ago, I reported that this movie had been put on Youtube officially, but I find that that link is no longer active. The movie is available to rent for a mere $1.99 on Amazon Video, which is where I watched it.  Ultimately, it’s a story of hope and for that alone, it’s absolutely worth watching. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

From a western perspective, there was nothing censorship-worthy, but Kahiu had to sue her own country’s government to get the film shown in Kenya…she was successful and it did play for a week. With luck we’ll be seeing more of her work in the near future for Amazon and a movie called The Thing About Jellyfish.