Waithira
Eva Njoki Munyiri
2017 - 72 min - Full HD - Couleur et Noir & Blanc - Afrique du Sud

Wathira is a portrait of my paternal grandmother who died when I was 7, constructed through the fragmented memories of the three granddaughters named after her.
When I was a child my parents moved to South Africa in the euphoric post apartheid era. In this film I trace my roots back to the era of the Kenyan postcolonial struggle through the shared memories of my family, of our paternal grandmother Waithira. The countries, ethnicities and families of Africa share an ancestral memory.
In this film I investigate my own, hopefully resonating with that of others. I picture my granny seated on her three-legged stool outside her cooking hut, silent and calm. And her namesakes: Waithira my eldest sister who lives in Wales, the perfect daughter; Waithira my cousin in Dresden who let me try on her lipstick as a young girl; and Waithira my cousin in Nairobi who I barely knew while growing up. The historical legacy the characters find themselves in and the choices they make are key.
The film encourages its protagonists to imagine their grandmother during moments of her life when she was young – she thus becomes their age mate and not only their namesake. The ruminations of the past are offset by the present.
The narrative of Grandmother Waithira’s life as it moves through key events and rites of passage anchors the film and echoes corresponding events in the granddaughters’ lives. This interweaves a progression stretching from the mythic origins of the naming ritual, to the trials of colonisation, with daily life in Europe, beauty rituals and marriage and motherhood.
The film ends with the unveiling of a shrouded past, the depression and suicide of the matriarch Waithira. The film transcends this painful past, and celebrates the lives of African women today, trying, as their grandmother did, to determine their lives. The film is a quest to understand how the personal and collective past shape our lives today as African women.