“Mama wa Hunzi” is worth your time!
If I only have fifteen seconds of your time, then please hear this: “Mama wa Hunzi” (Women Blacksmiths) is a not-to-be-missed film that you will miss unless you join the online streaming of the film through the Hedgebrook Film Festival 2023 by June 2.
Thai woman filmmaker Lawan Jirasuradej shares the journey of three women with disabilities who participate in training to build wheelchairs in Kenya in 1997. It centers on two Ugandan women, Fatuma Acan and Sharifa Mirembe, and a Kenyan woman, Peninah Mutinda. Filmmaker Jirasuradej lets us in on their lives — the difficulty of getting decent work once the employer sees that they are disabled — the vast challenges of using a typical wheelchair on dirt roads, crowded streets, and impossibly narrow corridors — and the frustration of being at the mercy of taxi-van drivers as to whether they will allow them and whether they will charge more for the wheelchair. Before the training, Sharifa Mirembe had a heavy wheelchair that was very hard to transport, including in these taxi-vans. In the film, she shares that at times she had to “leave my wheelchair and crawl.” The training is an act of empowerment for these women to learn to build foldable, rugged wheelchairs that will allow them to navigate these daunting conditions.
The film shows women helping women. Jennifer Kern, a lawyer and disability rights activist at the time and a wheelchair user, describes her experience as a volunteer at the training: “my being able to do things or try, it sort of reinforces their efforts — and the same for me.” We see Acan working closely with Jan Sing, the technical director for the organization sponsoring the training, Whirlwind Wheelchair International. Side by side, goggles on, and sparks flying, they weld steel, bending pipes to construct wheelchairs. This connects to the Swahili title, “Mama wa Hunzi,” which means women blacksmiths. However, this is not merely a descriptor: it has been a title of stature in African culture with its many centuries-rich history in iron where male blacksmiths were not only respected but revered. We witness these women take their place in this lineage.
Jirasuradej also lets us in on the struggles, joys, and celebrations in the training. Mutinda, an extremely determined woman, keeps trying to push her wheelchair up a steep ramp. It is impossible not to be rooting for her. She doesn’t make it that time, but it is that same perseverance that leads to her being the first woman to open a business building and selling wheelchairs in Kenya. In an exchange between Kern and an adolescent boy — their wheelchairs practically touching—Kern asks the boy, “So why did you want to know if I was married?” He responds, “I wanted to know because in Kenya, when you are disabled, there is nobody to take care of you. You can’t marry.” Kern leans in, “you can.” He pauses. “I’m going to try.” Kern repeats: “You’re going to try.” The boy and Kern are now both laughing. He says “yeah.” At the end of the training, the lights go down and the music turns on. Everyone is on the dance floor, standing, with or without canes, and in wheelchairs. There’s a lot of spinning and impressive moves.
We see glimpses of the broader history that leads to this training. Ralf Hotchkiss is in view in a number of scenes, although often in the background (presumably to keep the women front and center). He is the genius and the engineer behind this. A wheelchair rider himself, he envisioned a simply made (and repaired) wheelchair appropriate to the tough environment in Africa and that could be folded for easier transport. He also wanted build a network of locally owned and operated businesses across the globe that could take advantage of readily available parts and provide the opportunity for entrepreneurship among the disabled. He co-founded Whirlwind Wheelchair International (WWI) to pursue this vision. The focus on women got a boost from the international networking of disabled women that occurred in conjunction with the Fourth United Nations Conference on Women and the NGO Forum on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995. Women in the Berkeley area — a hub for disability rights and the home of WWI — formed Whirlwind Women to support fundraising and international support for women with disabilities. Jennifer Kern was one of the Whirlwind Women at the training.
To fully appreciate how forward-thinking Ralf Hotchkiss’ vision is, consider what happens without this approach. First, there is a staggering need for wheelchairs in Uganda and Kenya (and many other places in Africa and around the world). The governments have not stepped up to provide wheelchairs, leaving people dependent on charity. Free wheelchairs shipped in may not be designed for the tough environment or the particular needs of the wheelchair user. Further, it may be difficult or impossible to get replacement parts or to repair it. This may leave a person checked off the charity list but without a usable wheelchair. Women are even more likely to suffer in these models as they take a far backseat to men in priority for wheelchairs. The film reports that only one percent of women who need wheelchairs get them. This film is about an effort to put women in the driver’s seat for the wheelchairs that they need.
While this training may seem to be in a time capsule, the issues are not: we are fortunate that this film has emerged again to reignite conversation on how, as world citizens, we should approach these needs. “Mama wa Hunzi” premiered in 2003 at simultaneous screenings at the African American Women in Cinema Film Festival in New York and the Torino International Women Film Festival in Turin, Italy. It had multiple screenings in the following years across the globe, including in Germany, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Australia, India, China, and Brazil. Then, as many documentary films do, it went dark. As a part of the international support she received in making the film, Hedgebrook in Washington state provided a residency. Now, it has helped bring the film to us. Let’s watch it.
One of the most endearing people you will meet in the film is Fatuma Acan. Her smile is extraordinary. A single mother who had Polio as a young child, she has used a wheelchair since she was 14. After the training, she created and ran a wheelchair business in Kamapala, “MADE Uganda,” based on the Whirlwind model. Now she is a grandmother and continues to be interested in wheelchair design. I recently had the opportunity to correspond and talk with her. She still uses a Whirlwind Wheelchair. She said,
“What is a wheelchair to the user? Every user will give you a different answer. I would say a wheelchair is a life saver. It is just like water to a plant that was withering. . . Without a wheelchair, all you can do is stay home. . . A wheelchair gives the user a chance to look beyond himself or herself.”
Maybe you aren’t sure what you can do on such a complex issue that might be outside of your familiarity. Here are three easy things you can do. (1) Watch “Mama wa Hunzi” at the Hedgebrook Filmmakers Showcase 2023. Tickets for the five-movie festival are at a sliding range beginning at $5 for all the movies. (2) Share the link to the movie, Hedgebrook Filmmakers Showcase 2023. (3) Please also share the link to this article through your social media. It is something we can all do to raise awareness and to have appreciation for these courageous women.
Note on author: Ann McColl wrote about her experience with the Whirlwind Rough Rider Wheelchair on Medium.com (Snapshots of a Chronic Illness and The Joy of Wheelchairs). It led to exchanges with Fatuma Acan and interviews with others involved in the Whirlwind Wheelchair story. (Thanks to Bruce Curtis and Whirlwind Wheelchair International.) Serendipitously, at the same time of the interviews, Lawan Jirasuradej shared information with some of the women about the upcoming screening. Please follow and request email updates for future articles on these subjects.
Title design and photographs made available by Lawan Jirasuradej.
