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Man in chains, an italian documentary in Kenya

Malindi inland, a story about mental illness and traditions

13-06-2020 by Freddie del Curatolo

Even today the coast of Kenya, where civilization in many ways has descended like a cleaver on centuries-old traditions that have never taken into account historical events, from the industrial revolution to the atomic bomb, from the discovery of penicillin to technological innovations, has hidden sides.
Sometimes disturbing, often shrouded in halos of magic and mystery but deep and fundamental to explain ancestral aspects of the human mind.
The Italian researcher and documentary filmmaker Simone Grassi has been working for years on these hidden folds and on safeguarding the traditions and customs of the Mijikenda ethnic group.
After having dealt with good witchcraft and those who fight for the survival of the Mijikenda culture and having made the documentary "Kyuye Uye, The Magic Come Back" with the collaboration of the Malindi District Cultural Association, he has just finished making a second very interesting film entitled "Changawa, the man in chains".
It is a true story that Simone discovered during the shooting of "Kyuye Uye" and that literally captured him. Changawa is a middle-aged man who lives in the hinterland of Malindi and has been kept in chains for years by relatives to prevent his schizophrenia from degenerating into self-harm or being dangerous to others.
From a situation that at first glance was aberrant and inhuman, the Ligurian researcher delved into the real reasons for this decision, which was also willingly accepted by Changawa himself.
With the help of mganga (the traditional curators, "sorcerers" of the white magic Mijikenda) and diviners, as well as socio-sanitary operators, Simone went back in time and at the same time built an eight-year-long interactive document that has become the very cure for man in chains that will gradually access modern and not only traditional treatments and at the end of the film will return to society, even if not definitively.
With pride, we can say that we introduced Simone to the Mijikenda culture and put him in touch with MADCA. The poet Kazungu Wa Hawerisa and the coordinator Emmanuel Munyaya have long been his inseparable collaborators. This is the story of his meeting with Changawa.
"At that time we were moving in the villages of Kilifi County to document interesting stories for the MADCA archive. One day we were filming in a village near Baricho, where they were to interview the son of Kahindi wa Kadzomba, an influential and legendary witch hunter who had disappeared a few years earlier. At the end of the day, as we were preparing to return to Malindi, I heard a metallic noise coming from a nearby hut. Instinctively I approached and from a small wooden window I saw a man sitting on the floor, with a heavy iron chain wrapped around his leg. It was a shock, but after asking, I realized that everyone in the area was aware of the history of Changawa and knew why. Because of his early talent, he was considered a predestined one, worthy of belonging to the group of authentic traditional healers like his father. Perhaps it was precisely because of his being "ahead" that serious mental problems arose. From here, accomplices also of local beliefs, he ended up in those miserable conditions".
From the following morning, Simone and his assistants devoted all this time to his history and his health. Alternating the sessions and the filming with numerous trips to Italy, Simone realized that he was engaged in something more than a simple testimony.
Interviewing healers, mediums and soothsayers and expanding his knowledge in the psychiatric field, also consulting with anthropologists who have analyzed similar situations in the African continent, Simone cultivated the idea that Changawa's mental problems were more spiritual than psychic in nature.
"As a simple observer with a camera - admits Simone - I was totally involved in the story but I needed the opinion of experts in the field. The most authoritative person in this chapter is Professor Charles Newton, one of the best researchers on mental health with great experience in Africa. We explained to him what we were doing in Malindi and he became interested in the story".
So, three years ago, traditional therapies were flanked by drug treatments, with inevitable initial side effects and difficulties for the family to bear only partially reimbursable medical expenses. Between interruptions, improvements and relapses, Changawa is still in therapy and is often put back in chains.
"The chains are recognized by him as an extreme method but sometimes indispensable to protect himself as well as his family - explains Simone - whoever sees the film will understand that in this story there is no happy ending, nor can one accuse his people of violating human rights. It is simply reality. A reality that, when told, has allowed many questions to be raised".
And it also made it possible to turn the documentary into a project coordinated by the Kenya Medical Research Institute, which received a grant to start an awareness-raising campaign on schizophrenia in Kilifi County, since Changawa, although extreme, is not the only case. The result was a collaboration between Kemri, the Documentary Institute of Eastern Africa and Madca who worked together to improve knowledge about mental illness and reduce prejudice against people with mental illness, as well as encouraging patients to seek health care, bringing together and not conflicting modern and traditional medicine. The slogan of the awareness campaign is "Difu Simo", which in giriama dialect means "get rid".
Personally, we met Changawa in Malindi a year ago and his temporarily serene look touched our hearts. One like Changawa does not forget, because it is part of our origins, of our soul, of something that languishes everywhere, not only in the "cradle of humanity", at the bottom of our unconscious.

TAGS: italiani kenyafilm kenyamadca

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