Wangari Maathai’s environmental Afrofuturist imaginary in Wanuri Kahiu’s Pumzi

ABSTRACT

Wangari Maathai’s environmental activism aims at the restoration of ecosystems to guarantee ecological sustainability. It is a mission premised on the need to place measures such as the planting of trees to remedy environmental wounds. To stress both the gravity of loss and the possibilities of arresting it, the metaphor of healing the earth underlines her vision that speaks to concerns of Afrofuturism. However, scholarly attention to ways activism finds expression in Afrofuturistic discourses needs to increase. Therefore, this study zooms in on and analyzes notions of remediation in Wanuri Kahiu’s short film Pumzi (2009). The discussion of the film teases out and aims to mobilize the content of Wangari Maathai’s Nobel Lecture of 2004. The film blends traits of science fiction with aspects of Gĩkũyũ orature to position Pumzi as nurturing Afrofuturist environmental imaginary that builds on Wangari Maathai’s call to heal the earth.

KEYWORDS:

• Afrofuturism
• remediation
• environment
• Pumzi
• Wangari Maathai

Notes on contributor

James Wachira is a Kenyan PhD student at the Bayreuth Graduate School of African Studies. He obtained his Master of Philosophy in Literature in 2011 from Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya. His Master’s thesis was on oral animal praise poems the Samburu women perform to animals. This article develops from and builds on an interest that pioneers research on Kenyan literaryscapes’ engagement with ethics, notions and knowledges on conservation in post-independence Kenya. His research brings to the fore Kenyan eco-narratives’ presentations of non*human agencies in logics on conversation in post-independence Kenya. He has presented his research on the non*human at the 2015, 2017 and 2019 ASLE conferences. He is the author of “Animal Praise Poetry and the Samburu Desire to Survive” in Fiona Moolla (Ed.), Natures of Africa: Ecocriticism and Animal Studies in Contemporary Cultural Forms. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2016.

Notes

1 This is from Wangari Maathai’s conclusion of the Nobel Lecture delivered on December 10 2014 in Oslo, Norway.

2 Asha’s gender remains unclear throughout the film. Hence, this article prefers to mark the ambiguity in signposting Asha’s gender by way of introducing an asterisk in the pronoun “s*he.”

3 The concept of category of analysis derives from Rogers Brubaker (2013).

4 I owe the concept of relating to Bolter and Grusin’s (1999) argument on interplay (p. 47).

5 The explanation of the inherent imagery in the names Asha and Maitu serves to dispel the fear that the inherent ambiguities may be inaccessible to anyone who is not fluent in Gĩkũyũ. The exploration finds inspiration in Womack’s tasking Afrofuturist scholarship with the responsibility of “uncovering […] scientific inventors past and present and incorporating their stories into the larger conversation about science, technology, creativity, and race” (2013, p. 46).

6 In Gikuyu, the /u/ in Maitu gives the word a different meaning from Maitũ.

7 For a complete list of the core values of the Green Belt Movement, see Wangari Maathai’s (2010) Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World (pp. 14–15).