Artist: Wanuri Kahiu (Kenya), dir., Pumzi (2009). Screen capture.

PRIMARY MATERIALS

Link to PUMZI (approx. 22 mins.) on YouTube.
Link to PUMZI (approx. 22 mins.) on Vimeo.

[Both the YouTube and the Vimeo embedded links are to the same short film. I am just providing 2 links on 2 different platforms in case one goes down…]

SECONDARY MATERIALS

Womack_Ytasha_Afrofuturism_The_World_of_Black_Sci-Fi_and_Fantasy…_-_1_Evolution_of_a_Space_CadetDownload

This is a downloadable pdf of Ch. 1 of Ytasha L. Womack’s book, _Afrofuturism_. Please read the whole chapter, but focus in particular on the section titled “What is Afrofuturism?” The entire book is also available as an e-book from the Hampshire College Library (and other FC libraries), through ProQuest e-book central (if you would rather read online).

Collier_Delinda_Pumzi-and-the-Politics-of-TrashDownload


This is a downloadable pdf of Delinda Collier’s short essay (first published as a blog post) on Pumzi.

READING AND LOOKING QUESTIONS

Kahiu_Wanuri_questionsDownload

Downloadable file with questions (also below).

WANURI KAHIU, PUMZI (2009)

  1. What is the name of the community where Asha (the film’s protagonist or main character) lives? What do we learn that this name means?
  2. Describe 2-3 positive aspects of Asha’s community or aspects you find compelling.
  3. Describe 2-3 negative aspects of Asha’s community or aspects you find problematic.
  4. What is Asha’s “ailment”? That is, what is wrong with her or what is the condition for which she is supposed to take her medication?
  5. What does her “ailment” cause her to do by the end of the film?
  6. Pumzi is frequently described as Afrofuturist as well as eco-feminist in approach or philosophy. Working from your own understanding of these terms—even if very rough—what aspects of the film might exemplify these approaches or philosophies?
  7. Describe in your own words how Africanness or blackness (or both) figure in the image of Asha or the image of her community in the film. Would you say that Africanness or blackness are thematically central to Pumzi, or do they rather enter into, and shape, the film in a different way?
  8. You come from the past in Asha’s world. Write a letter or a message to Asha in which you explain to her how, in the past, people predicted a future without enough water and fraught with water wars but did not manage to stop this future from coming. Express your feelings to her about this failure.

OR

You come from the present in Asha’s world. Write a letter or a message to Asha in which you tell her about a dream of your own that you wish to share with her. Explain why you wish to share this dream with her.

OR

You come from the future in Asha’s world. Write a letter or a message to Asha in which you tell her about what happens in an era that comes after the end of the film.

Go the extra mile and know something about the artist/filmmaker and her context:

–Wanuri Kahiu was born in and lives in Kenya. Can you find Kenya on a map? What part of Africa is it in (North/Southern/Central/West/East)?

–The country we call Kenya was, from 1895-1962, a colonial territory of/occupied by what European power?

–Can you name 2 of Kenya’s 5 neighboring countries?

–Was Kenya a settler colony? That is, did the European colonial power send its citizens to live there or did that power incentivize resettlement of its citizens in Kenya in large numbers?

–Where did Kahiu go to university and to film school?