Human rights campaigners who hardly see value in films seem to be making an exception. They are hailing a new British film focusing on witch-hunts in Zambia, pointing out that it will help to curb violence against women if translated into local languages and distributed widely.
The film “I Am Not A Witch” – which tells the story of an eight-year-old Zambian girl accused of being a witch – was named the most outstanding debut film during Britain’s recent top film awards, the BAFTAs.
The director of the film, Rungano Nyoni went to Ghana to conduct research on a local film that was built around a girl accused of witchcraft and banished from her village to stay with women also branded as witches.
In many parts of Africa, films on witchcraft which often command wide viewership are hardly exploited to advantage. This is why campaigners against social violence directed at women pounced on this one. They believe that it will help to raise awareness about the reality of witchcraft thereby correcting the myths and false narratives affecting society negatively.
The director of the charitable group, known as Equality Now, Shelby Quast, puts it this way, “films on under-reported gender abuses are very important as they can bring these often hidden issues to the public’s attention and force them into the light”.
Mr. Quast continued, “Bringing these stories to light ca help survivors, civil society and communities to help their governments and duty bearers to account”.
Supporters of Mr. Quast’s position say that millions of girls and women in the developing countries, especially in Africa, are still branded witches by their relatives either out of ignorance or envy, so that they could seize their property pr inheritance.
Instances abound where the victims are elderly widowed women who are excommunicated from the society when they escape being lynched by the so-called enlightened relations.
Another expert on the subject, Philip Kilonzo, who works for KenyaAid, says that “In the African context, witch-branding usually leads to alienation of women from the community and this denies her rights to own land or even inherit it and reduces her ability to fend for herself”. No doubt, these revelations to have given the film, I Am Not A Witch, bigger impetus.
