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CineMAfriq Film Series

An archive and resource for films discussed as part of the BU African Studies Libraries' CineMAfriq Film Series.

Vuta N'kuvute (2021)

"Vuta N’Kuvute (Tug of War) based on Adam Shafi’s award-winning Swahili novel, is a coming-of-age political drama about love and resistance set in the final years of British colonial Zanzibar. The film weaves through 1950s coastal culture across the divides of class and racial segregation that were imposed by the colonial regime. Denge, a frustrated and rebellious Zanzibari young man who is part of the freedom struggle against British rule meets Yasmin, a recent runaway Indian-Zanzibari bride whose equal rebelliousness drives her to seek her own independence. Their romantic but forlorn relationship is coupled with the daily struggles of finding their place in the resistance movements for independence.

Vuta N’Kuvute is a story of a people, the self and the other. It ties together struggles at all levels of oppression in a colonial society into a history of one people, a free-er people."

Source: https://www.kijiweniproductions.com/films/vuta-nkuvute

Discussion Questions

 

  1. What are your overall impressions of the film? Did you enjoy it? Why / why not?

  2. Thoughts on the pacing of the film? Did it add or detract to the story itself? 

  3. For Swahili learners/speakers: are there any cultural or language cues that non-speakers might miss?
    Overall thoughts on use of language, and how & when it was used?

  4. Does this film have an overarching message? What was it? And what was it's overall tone? (Hopeful? Bleak? Both?) 

  5. Thoughts about the music in the film? Do you feel that it contributed to the overall narrative?

  6. What are your thoughts about ethnicity and how it was portrayed in the film? 

  7. How did you feel about the ending of the film? How might you have changed it? 

Further Resources

Cast of Characters

Denge - young freedom fighter, trained in the Soviet Union, working to overthrow both monarchy and British colonialism.

Yasmin - Indian-Zanzibari Muslim woman fleeing an arranged marriage to an older man. 

Mwajuma - Dancehall singer

Pazi - 

Koplo Matata - 

Mambo - 
Mambo's lover - 

Inspector Wright - 

Chande - 

Razza Hussein -