In ?My Dead Husband?s Land,? Mia Malan, a South African journalism trainer and filmmaker, tells the moving tale of the tiny village of Orongo, on the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya.
?The whole story is really about HIV-AIDS and culture, and the impact that culture ? in this case, the culture of Kenya?s Luo ethnic group ? can have on the spread of the virus,? Malan says.
The fascinating 23-minute documentary focuses on a young HIV-positive widow, Betty Tom, and her arduous struggle for acceptance by the Orongo community.
?In this culture of hers, there?s a practice called wife inheritance. And wife inheritance basically means that if I?m married to a man and he dies, then I get inherited by a male relative of his. And I would really have no say in the matter; I would become the wife of someone, have sexual relations with the person ? and if I refuse to do so, I would be sent away along with my kids and have no access to my dead husband?s possessions or his land,? Malan explains.
Her film is unlike many others about Africa?s devastating AIDS pandemic.
?The rarest thing about the story for me was that (the Orongo community has) used a desperate epidemic ? HIV-AIDS ? to actually change (discriminatory aspects of) their culture. They started off by arguing: Well, we?re HIV-positive widows ? if you allow us to be inherited, we may infect our new husbands. But the beauty of it is, this story could have ended in these widows being discriminated against because they?re HIV-positive and they (had refused to) follow the culture. But they actually determined themselves what was going to happen,? Malan says.
The women of Orongo used the fact that Tom?s in-laws were trying to force her to marry her deceased husband?s brother to enlighten the community about the spread of HIV-AIDS in their home area.
?They actually used this (situation) to explain the whole epidemic to people, and educated elders in the village about the epidemic, and today everybody there goes for HIV tests. It isn?t just women who are HIV-positive and widowed who now have access to their dead husband?s land and can refuse to be inherited ? it?s led to every single woman in that village having those rights,? Malan says.
After Tom refused to be taken as the wife of a man she didn?t love, he viciously assaulted her and her in-laws chased her away. She ended up in the slums of Nairobi. In the film, Tom, close to tears, tells Malan: ?I had nowhere to take refuge with my three children. Life was not so easy now. I had reached a point of no return. I wanted to do away with their lives and mine too.?
But Tom, supported by sympathetic community leaders, returned to Orongo and began a vigorous fight for her rights to her husband?s land and her right not to be forced to marry her brother-in-law ? because she herself was HIV-positive and didn?t want to run the risk of infecting her new husband. After Tom?s lengthy battle, the Luo of Orongo today no longer banish women who refuse to be inherited and no longer confiscate their land.
?To use a desperate epidemic to change your life for the positive is just an incredible story and I wanted as many people to get to hear about it as possible, so that everyone can see that Africa is not just this place of war and mass graves and disease, but that there are people here who are making a difference,? says Malan.
She?s eager to emphasize that not all aspects of Luo culture are negative. The tradition of wife inheritance itself, for example, was originally a positive practice, intended as a way to ensure a male relative of a woman?s deceased husband would support the widow and her children, so that the family wouldn?t languish in utter poverty.
But because so many men in western Kenya are now dying as a result of illnesses caused by HIV-AIDS and are leaving behind widows who are themselves infected with the virus, a fatal element has been added to the cultural practice of wife inheritance, ensuring that it has become a dangerous conduit by which the disease is spread.
Malan says many Africans place a premium on culture, and ?vehemently resist? any modifications to their traditions. But the people of Orongo decided that transformation was essential to their survival and their humanity.
?The fact that such a cultural change has happened in Kenya ? even though it has only happened in a small part of the country ? is a major thing. And the fact that women had such a major influence in forcing their culture to change ? in male-dominated African society ? makes it an even bigger story,? she adds.