Art is being oppressed in Kenya

What you need to know:

  • The Kenya Film Classification Board warned against screening the movie for it depicted women as sexual slaves.

  • This came after Jim Chuchu’s film Stories of Our lives was also banned in Kenya because of its gay themed story. The film, which was screened at the Toronto Film Festival addressed the story of homosexuals living in Kenya and their secret lives.

The ban of the highly anticipated film 50 Shades of Grey in Kenya by the Kenya Film Classification Board didn’t come as a surprise to many, if anything, it was expected just ask anybody who’s read the book.

The Kenya Film Classification Board warned against screening the movie for it depicted women as sexual slaves.

This came after Jim Chuchu’s film Stories of Our lives was also banned in Kenya because of its gay themed story. The film, which was screened at the Toronto Film Festival addressed the story of homosexuals living in Kenya and their secret lives.

Important dialogue

Films and TV programs serve a number of purposes in our society – to tell stories, entertain and most importantly help us imagine the world in new and creative ways.

Locally, the creators and the distributors of films and TV shows also contribute to our economy.

Often, its most overlooked purpose is that it should serve the common good, connect and draw the society into important dialogues.

The influence that films and art in general have on the broader culture should not be overlooked, and ignoring it is unwise.

The arts scene was dealt a big blow when music, art and craft subjects were scrapped off the school curriculum and looking at the situation years later, only a few private schools offer art and music as a subject in their curriculum.

This locks out many future actors, musicians and painters though the music and drama festivals and competitions are a big deal in primary and secondary schools but they are not a talent factory as it would be expected.

The problem with these festivals and competitions are; no follow-up, one clears high school and that’s the end of their dream, not unless they go on to pursue their dream in the arts. Often times we hear that culture is shaped by the arts – films, folk songs, poems, paintings – but the Kenyan society disregarded that a long time ago which is quite sad. African art is one of the greatest cultural achievements in world history, and when done well, is highly heralded, for instance Hermine Huntgeburth’s White Maasai film. There should have been enough room for many other “White Maasais” but art is being oppressed in Kenya. The beauty of being a creative is bringing your ideas to life, without any formula whatsoever, creativity loses its purpose when there is no creative space or when someone is trying to control that space.

There is room for development of art in Kenya, the fields that couldn’t make sense to many years ago are now thriving independently; photographers and artistes now fight for their own space when instead they should have found the structures set up. Right from our education curriculum to how the society perceives certain art forms which come out as quirky, different, rebellious, snarky or even experimental.

We live in a culture that has placed a high value on the ability to demonstrate against-the-grain trends but letting an authority define what art is for the consumer it plays deaf to is wrong. Dictating how a creative should present his work makes us lose the ability to truly discern value and achievement in culture.