Samantha Mugatsia has received an award for the best actress for her lead role in the film “Rafiki” by the FESPACO 2019 film festival, which ended on March 1, in Burkina Faso.
The event is the largest film festival in Africa.
Mugatsia depicted a lesbian character in the film, which was banned in Kenya for “promoting lesbianism.”
Responding to the win as the lead actor, the film’s director indicted, “The oldest African film festival acknowledged a queer character… So proud! Queerness cannot be silenced!”
The award for the best actor went to Marc Zinga for his role in “The Mercy of the Jungle” wherein he plays a character of a soldier lost in the jungle in the wartime Democratic Republic of Congo.
Homosexuality remains to be illegal in Kenya. Gay sex is punishable by law in the country with imprisonment of 14 years.
The Kenyan high court is, however, expected to rule on whether the ban by the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) will be lifted in May 2019.
KFCB even went to lengths of indicating that anyone found in possession of the film would be punished for breaching the law.
The term “Rafiki” means friend in Swahili. The film traces a coming-of-age love story between two young Kenyan women.
Their love and consequent romance unfold against a backdrop of homophobia even as their families are on opposing sides of the country’s political divide.
The film is also based on “Jambula Tree,” a prize-winning short story published by Ugandan author, Monica Arac de Nyeko.
FESPACO celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.
