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Paper short abstract:

The paper will focus on the concept ‘sacrifice’ imaged in two ecofeminist films "Pumzi" (2009) by Kenyan Wanuri Kahiu, and "This is not a Burial, it’s a Resurrection" (2017) by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese from Lesotho.

Paper long abstract:

"Pumzi" (2009) is a short science-fiction film set in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland where life can survive only underground. "This is not a Burial, it’s a Resurrection" (2017) is a feature drama that explores destruction and forced displacement provoked by the construction of a dam. Aside from water being the common denominator signified in both films either by its absence or its looming destructive force, the sacrifices of the main female protagonists drive both narratives. The experiences brought by global capitalism, war, extractivist logic are interwoven with the personal suffering and sacrifice of the protagonists. In this paper, I propose to explore how the characters’ resistance to environmental destruction and ultimate sacrifice articulate the visceral link between their bodies and the land/earth. Not bound by one specific religious tradition, I argue that the spiritual journeys portrayed in the films, on the one hand, echo an African ecofeminist outlook on exploitative practices and their consequences, and on the other, forces us to rethink the spiritual, physical and epistemological relations between nature and peoples. In this sense, the films can be considered as cultural expressions of spiritual ecologies in African contexts.