The black dramedy, “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” is a candid cinematic work that carefully probes important topics of sexual abuse and generational trauma. The film follows a middle-class family living in Lusaka, Zambia. The director, Rungano Nyoni, handles the story with conscientious cultural representation. Though the film is uniquely Zambian, Nyoni does not confine the complicity in familial abuse to one geographic location.
The film opens with Shula (Susan Chardy), a young woman driving home from a party who stumbles across the corpse of her Uncle Fred (Roy Chisha).
At first glance, a murder mystery seems to be unfolding. Or, perhaps, a thrilling underground secret is about to be revealed. Instead, Shula responds to Uncle Fred’s dead body with uncanny stoicism. Her cousin, Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela) then appears on the road drunk and she too is unaffected by his death. Shula’s phone call to her father (Henry B.J. Phiri) is unsurprisingly met with apathy and disregard. Clearly, this family has its share of troubles.
As Shula and Nsansa attend Uncle Fred’s funeral alongside aunties, uncles and family members, the air is filled with a potent trauma plaguing the women of the household. Uncle Fred regularly abused and preyed on the young female relatives, which was widely known in the community yet intentionally ignored.
Between Nsansa opening up to Shula, and Shula looking for support in her parents with resigned hope, the extent of Uncle Fred’s abuse and the scope of the cover-up is shocking. One cousin cheerily claims all is well now that Uncle Fred is dead. This contributes to “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’s” portrayal of the layers of family guilt, cultural expectations and generational trauma that perpetuate abusive behavior.
Sexual abuse is handled sensitively but realistically. Shula and Nsansa are physically and emotionally repressed, often disappearing into a closet with bottles of beer in hand. In a particularly poignant scene, the aunties of the family enter the closet and tell the women that they must not be angry or blame anyone — because their aunties love them endlessly.
Shula’s own mother claims that she and her sisters talked to Uncle Fred, and that Uncle Fred said he would stop — with the accompanying insinuation that Uncle Fred’s behavior never changed. The film takes great care to show how confrontation is often done without intention, and confession often results in punishment and hardship for the victim.
Simultaneously, Uncle Fred’s widow, whom he wed and impregnated when she was eleven, is publicly shamed and harassed by both Uncle Fred’s family and her own for being “negligent” and “ungrateful.” The widow’s family pleads for forgiveness and she is forced to relinquish her house where she is raising her children. This plot displays the irreparable damage of a patriarchal community that not only always faults the woman, but consistently punishes her for what she has experienced.
The guinea fowl bird loudly wails in the presence of a predator — the title serving as a metaphor on alerting danger within a culture of silence. Yet, even with a multitude of admissions, nothing is done. Uncle Fred is grieved, the widow is punished and the women are left with open wounds and the impossibility of closure.
Nyoni utilizes the pacing and mystery of lighthearted dramedies to heighten the impact and reality of abuse. Though “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” elicits some laughs, they are the kind that heighten ache.
In the women’s inability to share their stories, express their sadness or realize their anger, Nyoni forces the audience to listen to their story with profound fury. The viewer stirs with a wrath and rage the character’s cannot — characters that reflect lived realities that Nyoni brings greater attention and anger toward.
