Rafiki

The All Welcome Reading Group is an online discussion platform focusing on fiction and non-fiction books, essays, plays, films and podcasts by people of colour.

Starts 11am

The session will last approximately 90 minutes. Please book and you will be sent a zoom link.


This month, Educator and Equal Rights Campaigner Zo Daniels invites you to watch the film Rafiki.

Inspired by Ugandan Monica Arac de Nyeko’s 2007 Caine Prize-winning short story Jambula Tree and banned by the Kenya Film Classification Board, Rafiki is the story of a romance that grows between Kena and Ziki, daughters of two opposing politicians. The title means ‘friend’ in the Kiswahili language and indicates the need to disguise a same sex romance as a platonic friendship in an intolerant society.

Director Wanuri Kahiu won a week long suspension of the ban from the Kenyan High Court in September of 2018, in order to screen in theatres in her homeland and become eligible to be submitted as Kenya’s entry to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards.

Please watch the film in advance and join us to discuss key points such as LBGTQI representations and rights, intersectional discrimination and other themes that resonate, surprise and challenge you.

You can find the film using this link here.