Different arts narrative for the Ugandan woman

Rehema Nanfuka, an accomplished actress and director.

What you need to know:

supporting role. Although many women have taken up writing for stage and film, women are still being written into lesser roles in arts productions. Rehema Nanfuka, an accomplished actress and director spoke to Andrew Kaggwa about her experience.

Picture a random Ugandan or Hollywood TV show! If you were asked to cast a person fit for the role of tycoon, business magnate, young doctor, company director, an ambitious person, would your pick be a man or woman?
Not that you are sexist, but Hollywood, whose template the world has recreated has spent decades selling us male problem solvers, heroes, magnificent doctors and all that.

According to actress Rehema Nanfuka, frequently a girl gets to be a side kick of the amazing actor she is paired with.
“There are times her role is to seduce the hero or simply be his girl-friend,” she says.

Cast in supporting role
And indeed, more than once, Nanfuka has put up spirited performances on screen, but often, she was supporting a male whom she either seduced or manipulated.

Her last appearance in a TV show was in the 2016 hit Yat Madit, a story of a community that has gone through turbulent times and is forging a life again - Nanfuka portrayed Suzanna, Opio (Michael Wawuyo Jr)’s manipulative girlfriend.
And it is almost the life of a female on Ugandan TV, especially when their roles require them to speak or make decisions, they will find themselves in roles mostly stereotyping what a woman is; “It is hard to be in the lead, there are always chances you are a side kick of the main dude.”

Though she feels great about Suzanna’s accomplishments, a side kick that became the main because of her wicked ways; in the ten episodes that aired on NTV at the end of 2016, the character indirectly made all the major decisions her beau Opio used to bring chaos to the community.
“When the producers did surveys in communities after the show aired, they realised fans hated her since they felt she masterminded the chaos,” she says.

Long way for women in arts
Nanfuka is an accomplished actress both on stage, TV, film and advertising, to spread her wings, she has even ventured into directing pulling off remarkable short films and theatre productions.

Yet, regardless of how good she and a rising number of female film makers - or how it has been proven that there are indeed women that wield enough power in Kampala’s corporate circles, art is yet to fully embrace the notion.
She says much of this stems from the way children are brought up; “men are brought up in a way that emphasizes that they are superior and the opposite happens to women.”

Nanfuka says the upbringing often shapes the narrative in art and the way people react to situations - for instance, she says that while many women have taken up writing for stage or film, many still picture a man in a stronger role than a woman.

Rehema the Director
For instance, while she has been directing since her school days and has professionally been part of theatre productions such as Betrayal in the City, One Man One Wife, Visions of Destiny as well as films 4G City, Nico the Donkey and Tebandeke’s Dream, among others, some-times she struggles to get both men and women listening to her.
“The upbringing does not prepare men to take orders from women and to make matters worse, even women do not want to listen to fellow women,” she says.

However, the discussion regarding the place of women in film is an old one, stretching all the way from Hollywood, Nollywood and of course Uganda for example, just this year, the Academy Awards received both praise and rebuke for Rachel Morrison’s first nomination in the Best Cinematography category and snubbing Patty Jenkins in the Best Director category.
In her documentary Amaka’s Kin, Temitope Oshin, a Nigerian pro-ducer too highlights challenges of being a female director in Nigeria where most women are born to believe they are followers than leaders.

Nanfuka says the lack of women at the helm of production houses has skewed the narrative; “most stories are told from a man’s perspective and what they believe is a strong woman.”
For instance she notes that often when a strong woman is written in Ugandan narratives, she will be a battered one that takes beatings and insults from her husband, side dish and forgives him at the end of it all.
“We want a strong woman that is not battered on screen, we are living in times where women are CEOs and managers,” she says.

Yardstick for beauty
Nanfuka though notices a fact that many female artists have been trapped by parameters that define beauty by Ugandan standards, for instance, a good number of them care about looking good, having a fairer skin without necessarily honing their skill. Today, it is one of Nanfuka’s priorities to use her status in the industry to change the narrative by helping as many women bring their stories to life.

Over the past year, she has been travelling and performing Doreen Baingana’s Tropical Fish, while at the beginning of this year, she was the director behind Afroman Spice’s latest offering Slay Queens of Africa, a production that seemed to appreciate not only the woman today but even the dynamics that make her unique.

But it is her feature film directorial début, the Nisha Kalema written Beyond Repair that she is greatly looking forward to; “It is a film starring a woman, produced and written by a woman,” she says.
She is also already in advanced stages of producing a TV show depicting a strong woman on top; “I want people to watch stuff that I have created and reflect on it,” she says adding that women will see themselves as tycoons, business magnates, and aggressive doctors.
“They will see themselves in a different way that TV and film today has not allowed them to be.”

Not content with second best
Hailing from Jinja, Basuta, Nanfuka went to Seeta Boarding Primary School before joining Kibuli Secondary School, Kawempe Muslim Secondary School and later Makerere University Business School (Mubs); It was at Mubs that a friend invited her to audition. With her mind on a particular role, she was disappointed when she was not cast that she even turned down the supporting role.
Nanfuka has been part of theatre productions such as Betrayal in the City, One Man One Wife and Visions of Destiny. She played the role of Suzanna in the 2016 TV series, Yat Madit, a story of a community forging life after the 20-year war in Northern Uganda.