Open Transcripts

Wanuri Kahiu

The Fight for Artistic Freedom

in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020

When the film was banned, I was real­ly, real­ly, real­ly sur­prised. And what sur­prised me the most about the ban was the rea­son the Kenya Film Classification Board gave. They gave the rea­son that the film was not remorse­ful enough. They said that if I change the end­ing of the film and make it more remorse­ful, then they would give me a rat­ing. Because they did­n’t like the idea of legit­imiz­ing, or nor­mal­iz­ing, the LGBT com­mu­ni­ty in Kenya. Which was ridiculous. 

We Need A New Image of Africa

in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2018

To have the hunter tell it, Africa is full of meek sto­ries about des­per­a­tion and despair. So when artists like myself offer an alter­nate vision, often we’re asked to defend our imag­i­na­tion. Why do we feel we have the lux­u­ry to cre­ate? Shouldn’t we be deal­ing with more impor­tant issues like cor­rup­tion, or war, or AIDS, or poverty?

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