Press ReleasesInternews Documentary Has US Premiere at Austin Film FestivalMy Dead Husband’s Land Spotlights Widows’ Rights in Kenya
(April 16, 2007) An Internews documentary titled My Dead Husband’s Land will have its United States premiere in Austin, Texas at the Austin Woman’s Film, Music and Literary Festival on April 28th. My Dead Husband’s Land tells the story of a 25-year old HIV-positive Kenyan widow, Betty Tom, and the transformation her community undergoes as a result of her battle for human rights. Betty is a Luo and her culture dictates that widows be inherited by close male relatives, typically a brother of the deceased. If the women refuse to be inherited—as Betty did—they along with their children are denied access to their dead husband’s land and possessions, and are chased away from their homes. The film crew visits Betty’s village, Orongo, on the shores of Lake Victoria, where she explains the nature of her resistance to powerful Luo cultural practices. "This is one thing that I've learned in life: that a woman can be empowered and a woman can become strong and, if a woman knows her right, it is good for her,” Betty says in the film. With the help of a community leader, Florence Gundo— known as Orongo’s
“mother” — and local organizations, Betty managed to convince an entire
village that women should have the right to choose their partners. The
community has also learned to accept HIV-positive people as normal, functioning
members of society. The film shows how Betty’s fight against discrimination transformed her community. And Orongo’s women are vocal about the fact that they used AIDS— a desperate epidemic—to achieve this, in a fashion yet unprecedented in Africa. Today women from all over Kenya and neighboring countries such as Uganda and Tanzania visit Orongo village to learn to advocate effectively for their rights. The 23-minute documentary came about as a result of an HIV journalism training that Internews and the Futures Group held for Kenyan radio journalists in Nairobi. The workshop focused on HIV and inheritance rights and studied ways in which widows could be empowered to take control of their inheritance. In addition to the documentary, at least 20 radio programs on ten different local radio stations were broadcast on the issue. The training was part of Internews’ ongoing Local Voices project in Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia and India to train journalists how to report on HIV/AIDS accurately and effectively. Malan was the Resident Journalism Advisor for Internews’ Local Voices program in Kenya for four years before moving to Washington, DC to serve as Internews’ Senior Health Advisor. In June My Dead Husband’s Land will be used to launch the television journalism aspect of Local Voices, training Kenyan television journalists how to report on HIV/AIDS in a way that reduces stigma and discrimination. Internews also plans to use the raw footage from the film as a training tool for journalists, providing it for editing and scripting exercises. A version of My Dead Husband’s Land was broadcast on the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship television current affairs show, Special Assignment, in connection with World AIDS Day last year. My Dead Husband’s Land will be screened at the 4th African
Conference on the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research from in Kisumu,
Kenya on April 30th as an introduction to a discussion on the media’s
role in empowering women to claim their inheritance rights. At the conference,
Betty Tom, Florence Gundo, and Internews’ Specialist Radio Trainer Ann
Mikia will serve on a panel on the media’s role in telling stories about
inheritance rights. Organizers of the Austin Woman’s Film, Music and Literary Festival selected 48 films to be shown from the hundreds of entries for the festival. The event is produced by the Media Arts & Literacy Institute and aims to build community through media and to facilitate growth and empowerment of women by exhibiting quality female-directed films. FOR MORE INFORMATION: Mia Malan, Internews Senior Health Advisor |
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