The brave female voices at ZIFF’16

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Unfair Game

A stil with Thuli Makama the Environmental Activist
 Lawyer from Swaziland in the doc film ‘Unfair Game’ 

When a grown man recounts with the ghost recoils of horror and shame, how he was woken up in the middle of the night. Dragged to the bushes and beaten by game rangers until he pisses and shits himself, then made to eat the same. Something deeply stirs in your sternum, at the ZIFF film festival this year on 12 of July around 8pm, at the Ngome Kongwe amphitheatre in Zanzibar. The documentary film ‘Unfair Game’ was presenting this cold scene.

‘Unfair Game’ by director John Antonelli from USA, has footage since the late 1990s till last year, shot in the game reserves of Swaziland and Zambia with a few scenes from Congo. The story centres on the efforts of two activists, a lawyer from Swaziland Thuli Makama and a farmer from Zambia Hammer Siminga; who in the politics of poaching wild animals are fighting for the rights of the indigenous people surrounding these game reserves.

Left-Documentary film maker John Antonelli
 at a press conference in ZIFF answering on his
two doc film presented at the festival
 (right) Festival Director of ZIFF-  Dr. Martin Mhando

In the case of Hammer he was once a game ranger, who worked for the Owen’s a family from the USA. They back in the 1990s, owned land in Zambia’s game reserves. During their stay they noticed a serious decline of elephants in their camps over time, due to poaching and knew they had to do something. By realising it’s the surrounding villagers that partook in the actual killing of the elephants, they knew ultimately they had to place the villagers on their side. They then peacefully engaged with the villagers through Hammer, who is also a native of the area.

It’s here that they learned, that the villagers took to poaching as a means of survival, their crops were failing and they needed the money from poaching to get food and other necessary amenities. It’s here that the Owens with Hammer’s help, began a project that oversaw the implementation of sustainable agriculture methods for the villagers. The project did very well and soon results were obvious, many of the villagers stopped poaching animals for the poaching cartels in Zambia.

Press & Audiences at the ZIFF festival press conferences

It seems the head of these cartels are powerful people, for soon the Owens were kicked out of their land and returned to USA, where to date they’re not allowed back in Zambia. Thankfully Hammer, continued the project despite threats and to date, he’s continuing to help feed the lives of the villagers in the communities surrounding the game reserves Zambia.

The case with Thuli in Swaziland is more fragile. “Then two years later I met Thuli Makama in Swaziland and like a lot of people I think. Particularly from the USA, we have this picture of ‘What is a poacher?’ you know what does that mean, to be a poacher and everything that we see in the media is about the elephant poacher and the rhino poacher and the horrors of that.

And it is horrible but then I actually saw in the very first part of the story, which I shot in the Congo. There was a man who had been arrested for poaching and we were going to go to try and interview him and get a shot of him…Something clicked for me, because I saw this man and I saw that he was just a poor villager who seemed you know, not like an evil person…

A still with Hammer (left) teaching his fellow
villagers in Zambia on sustainable
agricultural practises in the doc film ‘Unfair Game’

He looked like a real person, I had compassion for him and didn’t know why at the time. And it slowly evolved for me that there was this whole other side to poaching that I learned about when I met Thuli in Swaziland.”-John Antonelli at a press conference after the airing of his documentary at ZIFF

Large areas of Swaziland are protected as game reserves or parks.  A private company, Big Game Parks (BGP), which is owned and operated by the Reilly family, manages three of these protected areas, including the Hlane Royal National Park. In Unfair Game, we see Thuli trying to file a case with the government, to ensure that game protection laws in Swaziland are administered by a government ministry, not a private company (BGP) as it stands right now. Where the Game Rangers from these parks, threaten bully even murder with no due process the surrounding villagers of the parks for ‘poaching allegations’.

Hammer Siminga towards in the documentary 'Unfair Game'
expressing his wish at seeing the Owens someday

“Both years we submitted this film to the Swazi film festivals and both years, they said I don’t know, they lost it or something happened and they wouldn’t show it.  Then we were going to do a private screening for just the people in the film in Swaziland and that got shut down too. The place where we going to have it, the Reilly’s exerted some pressure so it never happened.

I was going to go for that, Thuli advised me not to come cause I might end up in jail. You know when I was there filming the police commissioner and the assembly members they pulled me in before the commissioner. When I was all done filming and they tried to confiscate the interviews, but I had sent them out of the country already and they didn’t get to do that…”-John Antonelli

Thuli has not yet succeeded in her case but she’s slowly gaining international support, what with winning the Goldman Prize in 2010, from the Goldman Environmental Foundation.

Zanzibar Soccer Dreams

A still with Nassra J Mohammed, Tanzania
National Women’s football team head coach
in the doc film ‘Zanzibar Soccer Dreams’

Against the backdrop of strict muslim edicts, brave women like Feiruz Ally Amiri and Nassra J Mohammed, decided to pursue the game they loved, Soccer. Despite their society decreeing it a man’s game, this was back in the 1980s. They formed a team called ‘Women’s Fighters FC’ which exists to date as Zanzibar’s women national football team.

Their efforts piqued the interest of a visiting Prof from UK, who is a native of Cameroon-Florence Ayisi. She was moved by their story and shot a documentary film of the team titled, ‘Zanzibar Soccer Queens’ this back in 2007. It went on to feature in many international film festivals, getting rave reviews such that Women’s Fighters FC got invited to Germany by the women’s national team. Since then the club’s morale has been boosted and they’ve travelled for matches within and beyond the continent.

A still from ‘Zanzibar Soccer Dreams’
with Feiruz Ally Amiri, one of the
founders of Women Fighter’s FC and a pioneer
of Zanzibar Women’s football in ZNZ

“What kept us going despite the social taboos and discrimination was our love for the game. It’s in our blood, when you love something you stick with it plus this game is a good thing. We ourselves have had successes with this game, we’ve travelled even went on to play in Europe…for the young up coming girls in this game. I know they face challenges, you can’t easily sway parents to let go of their beliefs.

Girls in Secondary schools in ZNZ now able to enjoy football
thanks to the efforts of Nassra 

But I’d like to tell the parents that football for girls isn’t a bad thing,  it’s a very good thing because when a teenager or child participates in this sport. They avoid getting caught up in street activities that waste their time or put their future in danger. Instead they go to practice and at the end of the day, they’re exhausted with little time to waste plus their minds are made more the sharper from tge physical exercise…” Feiruz Ally Amiri one of the founders of Women’s Fighters FC the first women’s football team in Zanzibar.

Zanzibar Soccer Dreams, is a follow-up of this earlier documentary focusing on the efforts of Nassra J Mohammed, who is the current head coach of the National Women’s team ‘Twiga Stars’. In lobbying the government of Zanzibar to include soccer training for girls, as part of their education in schools. This was a long fight and she had been at it for over 20 years. Culminating to 2010, when Zanzibar’s government added soccer training for girls as part of the curriculum.

Girls from Langoni primary school airing their
delight at now being able to play football
 thanks to the efforts of Nassra Mohammed
and her team at Women’s Fighter’s FC

“Honestly I was very happy because when the sport wasn’t formalised for girls in schools, there was no formal training, for us female sports teachers. Since it was formalised we got the chance to participate in coaching seminars. We went to the ‘women leadership in sports Dar’ seminar, through the sponsorship of the British Council. On returning we then went on to teach, I’ve been teaching for six years now. In that time there’s been progress and so unlike in the footage of the film, my girls now wear track suits to the field.” Mgeni Suleiman Abdallah, a football Coach at Langoni Primary School in rural Zanzibar

The documentary shows an inter-school football bonanza for girls, the first of its kind on the island with some parents present cheering their girls. It was very heartwarming to see this journey and it’s obvious big things will result from the humble and persistent efforts of Women Fighters FC and Nassra J Mohammed in years to come.

Sea Change

A still from the documentary 'Sea Change' with Ikal Angelei
the native Turkana Activist who is fighting to help the tribes
of the Omo River to keep enjoying their river & Lake Turkana

John Antonelli features another brave woman this time from Kenya, in his second Documentary Film shown at this festival, namely ‘Sea Change’. The documentary follows Ikal Angelei. who is also a recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize-2012. She is the founder of ‘Friends of Turkana’ a movement registered in 2009. To help protect the endangered ecosystem of the Turkana Lake in Kenya, which is the largest desert lake in the world.

It’s currently under threat due to the controversial construction of Gibe III Dam on the Omo River, which is in it's final phases in Ethiopia . The river and the lake which co-exist are the sole source of livelihood for many indigenous communities stretching from Ethiopia to Kenya. Namely the Samburu, El Molo, Turkana, Rendille, Gabra and Dassanach from Kenya. as well the Dassanach, the Mursi, Nyangatom, Bodi, Hamar from Ehiopia and others like the Bodi, Kwegu, Chai and Suri tribes who together culminate an estimated 500,000 people.

A still of the native tribes around the Omo River
& Lake Turkana taken in the documentary 'Sea Change' as
shown at the ZIFF festival in July'16

Initially ‘Friends of Turkana’ managed to get some milestone in stopping the construction, with the help of the UN World Heritage Committee. Where then the African Development Bank and European Investment Bank pulled out of possibly funding Gibe III Dam. The world bank followed suit, but later they caved by funding the credit of a major transmission line to the dam. Together with the funding from The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the dam construction is underway.

Sea Change, reveals what will probably be one of our gross errors against humanity in this century as East Africans, for all these people now have their lives in dire peril. Despite warnings that have been issued by hydrologists and experts for years.

“In terms of the water table in the region — it is a dry area. So we really depend on groundwater, because we can’t depend on rainfall alone... With the lake receding, the water table of the lake goes down. It dramatically affects the groundwater across the basin. So even people who are not naturally fishermen or directly dependant on the lake, they depend on the groundwater for survival..” Ikal Angele in an interview by Christina M. Ruso of Yale Education

Sea Change helps put a human face, to the people on this strip, revealing a resilient  self reliable bunch who have survived their tough environment for eons until now. Richard Leakey (Chair of Kenya Wildlife Service Board); who was a mentor to Ikal growing up, is the one who called Ikal back to Kenya, to help give a voice to her people as she was living in the USA at the time.

He was featured in Sea Change and recently in a four part documentary series broadcasted by the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), on the ‘update of Kenya’s dwindling Lake Turkana as Ethiopian Dam begins operation’.

A native on the Omo River as shot in the documentary
'Sea Change' by John Antonelli

“If the Ethiopians complete their schemes, Lake Turkana will virtually disappear. It will be an old lake with nothing to show,” predicted Richard Leakey…“I think Lake Turkana is going to be the second Aral Sea. It is one of the worst environmental disasters you can imagine.”—by Haodan Heather Chen-newsecutirtybeat.org

Sea Change, was first aired publicly in East Africa at this ZIFF festival. Really every East African should watch it and learn more on this atrocity and what you can do to help the communities. By visiting survivalinternational.org; you can learn more of the horrors like illegal land grand grabbing that these people have endured and are still going through.

Leeches

The short film ‘Leeches’ is the last film that piqued my interest in this festival. Shot in Hyderabad India, by Director Payal Sethi. It follows a young muslim woman in Hyderabad (played by Preeti Golacha), who learns that her mute sister is about to be married off to a man she’s never met. The man comes from the Middle East,  Preeti smells a rat and she was right as the marriage is a ‘contract marriage’; so she forges a plot to save her little sister.

The film is unorthodox in its portrayal of a strong female lead character, in this deeply conservative and poverty afflicted world. Who owns her sexuality a lot like a city girl, with no cultural anchoring. A trait that is perhaps prevalent in our third world communities but rarely given the limelight.

“It was very uncomfortable for me to talk to these women who are so conservative in this old city, so I asked Jameela Nishat. Who is the head of the NGO that helped with the research for this film. They were like ‘oh yea, we have other tricks…’ they have this ‘alum stone’ which they use, which tightens the vagina it’s really bad. Over repeated use it kinds of leads to uhmn, all kinds of diseases and problems…this obsession with virginity has led to many tricks and this was the most disturbing one we could find.”-Payal Sethi in an after screening interview with her audience.

The film though touching on grave issues was still very entertaining to watch, as the cast particularly Preeti gave a wonderful performance. As well the sequencing of the shots were gripping, for they sat with the human story rather than the factual traits of ‘contract marriages’.

A still from the Short Film 'Leeches' with lead actress
Preeti Golacha as shown at the ZIFF festival
in July''16

“They call them ‘Mutha’ marriages in Hyderabad…there’s this tradition in Hyderabad, when a girl reaches puberty, they put up a white flag on the house. So these aunties go to these very poor neighbourhoods, they make friends with the mothers, they’re very sweet to them…They really work hard to become good with the family, then when the time comes. They say there’s this man in town why are you suffering so much, why do you want your daughter to live like this?

Leeches director Payal Sethi
of  FilmKaravan, at the ZIFF festival in 2016

Later they would throw her out of the house in that country, mind you she has no passport. So there’s a street called Hyderabad, in one of these (Middle Eastern Countries.) Where all these women brides who were thrown out, live as prostitutes. Then they passed a law there that an Arab man can’t bring back a non-Arab wife. So now those aunties make the parents sign divorce papers adjacent to the marriage papers and many times the parents are illiterate as is the case in the film… ”-Payal Sethi in an interview with her audience after the screening of Leeches at ZIFF

The NGO that gave Payal the background information for this film is ‘Shaheen Women’s Resource’ which is run by women in India from Hyderabad.

I was very moved to see the strong women in this year’s ZIFF from Thuli, Ikal, Nassra and female director Payal. Their fights for social justice is admirable and congrats to ZIFF for shining light on their works.

This article was first published in the East African newspaper on this link http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/magazine/Brave-female-voices-at-Zanzibar-International-Film-Festival-2016/434746-3332444-item-2-arg8nz/index.html