Zambia Best Films

I Am Not a Witch Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Do you know how to identify a witch? If you do, do you know how to keep them from flying away? I am not a Witch will provide you with all you need to know about witches in Zambia. Go watch this dark satire based on real life ‘witch camps’ in Africa.

Why Watch I Am Not a Witch?

See your first film from Zambia! (If you’ve already seen a Zambian film let me know what you saw – comment below)
Learn how to identify a witch and prevent them from flying away!
If you love satirical films – especially with a hint of magical realism
Because 9 year old Margaret Mulubwa is excellent in the star acting role

The Breakdown

Little ‘Shula’ is taken to the police for strangely staring at a local villager. As no one knows where she has come from, and because she is too shy to respond to speak, she is quickly denounced as a witch.

So what happens to the people denounced as witches? First, they’re taken to a special witch camp, which is pretty much an outdoor zoo where tourists can come and take pictures. To keep them there, each ‘witch’ has a ribbon attached to a tree attached to their back to stop them flying away. Life as a witch isn’t great!

Director Rungano Nyoni subtly satirises the whole film. There are moments when you think the police officer doesn’t believe in witchcraft before he convicts Shula. Nyoni walks a fine line between making the film too comedic and too serious. Ultimately she does it incredibly well and creates a film that communicates a serious matter without being too heavy or light.

Image result for i am not a witch

The Breakdown

I am not a Witch is original and clever. It’s a satirical film about real life witches in Zambia splashed with dashes of magical realism. The film is carried by the excellent performance of 9 year old Margaret Mulubwa. Go find and watch this film if you want to celebrate unique international film.

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Director Rungano Nyoni broke into the art-house film world in 2017 with her debut film, I Am Not A Witch. Her second feature, On Becoming Guinea Fowl, builds on her first and puts Zambia on the film map. It’s a chance for you to explore inter-generational trauma and the culture of silence with an anti-patriarchal lens rooted in Zambia.

From: Zambia, Africa
Watch: iMDB, JustWatch
Next: I Am Not a Witch, Moolaade, Monsoon Wedding

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl – The Breakdown

You might be wondering what a guinea fowl is and what this film has got to with them. Don’t worry I’ll help to answer these questions.

Firstly, a guinea fowl is a bird that belongs to the same order as chickens, turkeys, and pheasants. The helmeted guinea fowl is the most famous of the guinea fowl family, as it has been introduced as a domesticated bird around the world, after originating in Africa. It’s iconic because of it’s big spotted body and helmeted head, which isn’t too far from the Missy Elliot costume that Shula wears in the opening scene of this movie, when she finds her dead uncle laying by the side of the road whilst bumping the Lijadu Sisters.

Secondly, as referenced in one of the many flashbacks to a younger Shula, we learn that guinea fowls are highly valued in the African Savannah as an alarm for incoming predators. They are the first to send the alarm when lions, leopards, and other predators threaten them and their fellow preyed upon comrades. This is highlighted by director Rungano Nyoni as it becomes a metaphor for Shula – the first, and only one in her family to have called the alarm on her recently deceased uncle’s predatory behavior.

Shula is not just sending the alarm for her close family anymore, as the film shows her grow close with her community; her cousins from different social backgrounds, the women in her family, and the young and poor family her uncle left behind. Like with the communities that bond in trauma/injustice in director Rungano Nyoni’s previous feature, I Am Not A Witch, and Ousmane Sembene’s Moolaade, Shula emphasizes the strength of women. She also reveals the frailty of the men in charge to show that it is within their power to overturn Zambian society into a classless matriarchy.

What Next?

As mentioned above, Moolaade and I Am Not A Witch are two great places to start for more African films which also feature communities building to overcome the patriarchy. For Indian films with a similar theme – community theme, check out Monsoon Wedding and Parched.

Or for alternative media, follow Kirabo’s quest to find her mother in Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s novel, The First Woman.