Film / Rafiki

"Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives."

A 2018 lesbian drama by Wanuri Kahiu, based on the short story "Jambula Tree" by Monica Arac De Nyeko.

Not to be confused with the mandrill character in Disney's The Lion King.

---

This film includes examples of:

• Am I Just a Toy to You?: How Kena thinks Ziki thinks about her before she is sent away. Averted, Ziki returns to Kena at the end.
• The Bad Guys Are Cops: After Kena and Ziki are assaulted by a homophobic mob in the middle of the night the cops choose to make homophobic jokes at them in the police station, rather than show any concern for what happened to them. Furthermore, they only arrest Ziki and Kena, and take no action against the mob who beat them up.
• Bad Mood Retreat: Kena returns to the abandoned bus when she gets angry at her friend's homophobic behaviour.
• Bilingual Dialogue: Characters in the film often use English and Swahili alternately when speaking.
• Blaming the Victim: As Kena's father notes, she's the one arrested along with Ziki after they get beaten up for being lesbians, with all their attackers allowed to go free.
• Blessed with Suck: Ziki gets to fulfill her dream of traveling... because her parents want to remove her from the woman she loves.
• Boyish Short Hair: Kena wears her hair in a very short style, as part of her boyish style overall (she's a lesbian as well).
• Break the Cutie: After receiving a brutal beatdown at the hands of a homophobic mob, Ziki sits in a police station, staring at the wall utterly silent, not even reacting to Kena's attempts to comfort her. Double-whammy as Ziki was the one who wanted to be more relaxed with their relationship, while Kena wanted to be more secretive.
• The Bus Came Back: Ziki comes back from her mandatory holiday.
• Butch Lesbian: Kena is a downplayed example, with very short hair and a more masculine clothing style, who's into playing soccer against guys she knows, while not seen having female friends, only them. She also only reluctantly puts on a dress once, and then quickly takes it off. The film is about her relationship with another woman, while she doesn't show interest in men that way at all.
  Blacksta: Kena? She plays [soccer] like one of the guys!
• Call-Back: The movie starts with Kena on her skateboard. Then, a few things happen, and near the end she's on her skateboard again.
• Chick Magnet: How Blacksta and the other guys in the film seem to view themselves.
• The City: The movie never mentions another name but that of the neighbourhood, Slopes, but the Nairobi skyline features prominently in several scenes.
• Check, Please!: When Kena and Ziki meet at the cafe and hear Mama Atim gossiping to the cashier about them, they abandon their sodas half-finished to get away from her nosiness.
• Closet Gay: Both Kena and Ziki by necessity, given the homophobia where they live.
• Coming-Out Story: Ziki and Kena seem to be each other's first sweetheart, and no one else around them is aware of their queerness until Mama Atim rats them out.
• Cool Old Guy: Kena's father accepts her love for Ziki and tries to console her after she gets beaten up.
• Costume Porn: The clothes in the movie look very good.
• Cure Your Gays: Kena gets a church ceremony with all her family touching her and pleading to God to make her well again. She seems more annoyed than anything.
• Darkest Hour: Ziki and Kena are discovered, beaten up and turned in to the police.
• Date Peepers: Ziki and Kena aren't especially discreet, but Mama Atim, the local gossip, is far too interested in the development of their relationship.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Kena and Ziki's fathers are political rivals, in the middle of a campaign when the girls start seeing each other. Ziki's family also seems to disapprove of Kena because she comes from a poorer background than them. When Kena's father finds out Kena has been spending time with Ziki, he accuses her of undermining his campaign. However, he also stands by her when he finds out she's in love with Ziki. Ziki's father also disapproves of Ziki's sexuality when he finds out about it, choosing to send her away to England to get her away from Kena.
• Demonic Possession: Discussed, as Kena's mother thinks her lesbianism is caused by demons possessing her. Then her homophobic pastor prays before the congregation for exorcism.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Irritated with Blacksta's preference for Kena (despite Kena's lack of romantic or sexual interest in him), Blacksta's last hookup helps out Kena and Ziki to the town, which results in their being assaulted by a mob, and Ziki's parents sending her away to London to get her away from Kena.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Kena is often shown unable to look away from Ziki, who's beautiful, before they become a couple.
  Ziki: I've noticed the way you look at me.
• Emotionless Girl: Kena is very subdued throughout the story, apart from when she is with Ziki.
• Fast-Forward to Reunion: Ziki and Kena, presumably years later, as Kena is a practicing doctor and Ziki has the freedom to return to Kenya.
• Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Kena's mother never expressly disapproves of Kena's butch dressing style and hanging out with mostly guys, but she also encourages Kena to become more feminine.
  Kena's mother, after Kena tries on a dress: Doesn't she look like a proper woman?
• Flowers of Romance: An abandoned bus which has purple flowers growing over it is where Kena and Ziki go for privacy so they can be intimate, with an obvious symbolism of their romance.
• Forbidden Love: Kena and Ziki's relationship isn't accepted not just because they're a same-sex couple, but due to their fathers' opposing political candidacies (although Kena's dad isn't aware that it's more than a frienship at first).
• Forced Out of the Closet: Local gossip Mama Atim and the girl who works at the cafe out Kena and Ziki to the rest of the neighborhood.
• Good Parents: Kena's dad isn't exactly happy to learn she's a lesbian. He makes it clear though it's the guys who beat her up who should have been arrested, standing by her when no one else does, not even her mom (who's response is to blame Kena's lesbianism on demonic possession, having the pastor pray that they will be exorcised by God).
• Green-Eyed Monster: Tired of being ignored by Blacksta for Kena, Blacksta's prior flame suggests to Mama Atim that Kena and Ziki are queer, which leads, of course, to Mama Atim outing them to everyone else and their getting picked up by the police.
• Hates Wearing Dresses: At Ziki's insistence, Kena purchases a lovely pink floral dress, and when she puts it on for church, her mother gushes about how nice it looks on her. Kena is not thrilled, and goes promptly back to her jeans and button-ups after the service.
  Kena: I told you, my body is allergic to dresses!
• Held Gaze: Kena and Ziki are gazing into each other's eyes for an extended period, with Ziki subtly urging Kena to kiss her, before Kena finally takes her aside in the club and plants one on her.
• Heteronormative Crusader: Everyone, but emphasis on Mama Atim, who goes out of her way to out the girls, and later, as a patient of Kena's, refuses to let Kena touch her. The pastor in their church preaches homophobia and denounces calls for LGBT+ rights, saying it's sinful too. Kena and Ziki are even beaten by a homophobic mob after getting outed.
• Homophobic Hate Crime: Kena and Ziki are beated up by homophobes once they get outed as being lesbians. It's also mentioned earlier that LGBT+ people in Kenya are frequently victims of these, such as corrective rape with queer women (although they thankfully escape this), and murder too.
• Justified Criminal: Ziki and Kena, due to Kenya's laws against homosexuality. However, they are only seen sitting in a police station, never getting convicted - their real punishment is their separation due to Ziki getting sent to London.
• Known Only by Their Nickname: Mckena's full name is mentioned only once in the film; everyone calls her "Kena."
• Lesbian Jock: Kena, though a light version: She is very thin, plays football and liberally uses her skateboard.
• Local Hangout: The café where Kena plays cards with Blacksta and his friend in the beginning. Seems like a nice place, only has the drawback of a gossipy old lady sitting at the counter seemingly 24/7.
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Kena is more on the butch end of the spectrum and Ziki tends to be much more feminine. The police later ask them mockingly when under arrest which one is "the man".
• Monochrome Casting: The movie is set in Nairobi, Kenya, so everyone is black.
• Nosy Neighbor: Mama Atim, to a T. She spends all day hanging out at the local cafe and is a notorious gossip who delights in learning juicy secrets. She clearly relishes telling Kena that her divorced father's girlfriend is pregnant, emphasizing that Kena should pass the news onto her mother, and is all too happy to lead a violent mob to Kena and Ziki's hideout once she learns they may be romantically involved. The one thing that can be said for Mama Atim is, as Kena's mother notes, she never lies.
• One of the Boys. Kena only has friends who are guys (she plays soccer with them) before she meets Ziki, a woman her age, with the two dating.
• Out of the Closet, Into the Fire: Kena and Ziki are caught kissing by Ziki's mom, who tells Kena's mom. This starts to snowball afterward, with them running away then a mob attacking the couple after a gossip tells them they're lesbians before they both get arrested.
• Parents Are Wrong: Kena's mother and Ziki's parents are shown as being in the wrong in not accepting their daughters' sexualities.
• Preserve Your Gays: In the end, both Ziki and Kena survive and seem stronger when they seemingly reunite.
• Queer Flowers: The abandoned bus where Kena and Ziki go for intimacy has purple flowers growing over it. Lavendar is a longstanding symbol of homosexuality, more specifically violets with lesbians.
• Rose-Haired Sweetie: Ziki is a friendly young woman with her hair dyes in multiple colors, pink being the most prominent. She's more romantic and idealistic compared to Kena, her girlfriend.
• Secretly Gay Activity: Kena and Ziki go off together often, supposedly as just friends. They use being together privately to kiss and have sex.
• Secret Relationship: Same-sex marriage is illegal in Kenya and queer relationships are taboo. One of Kena's friends habitually makes fun of a local gay man, not knowing Kena herself is queer. Kena and Ziki keep the fact they're lovers a secret because of this.
• Sorry, I'm Gay: Kena to Blacksta: "Sorry, I love that girl."
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: If you ignore the bad stuff, Ziki gets to travel, Kena becomes a full-fledged doctor, and they are reunited at the end. If you ignore the bad stuff.
• Third Wheel: Ziki's friends, much to their growing annoyance. It causes friction between them and Kena.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Ziki in the police station, after having been beaten up by homophobic guys before being arrested, stares vacantly at nothing.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Kena has short hair and more masculine clothing, only reluctantly wearing a dress when Ziki urges her to. Ziki on the other hand is long-haired and likes feminine clothing.
• Time Skip: It's not really clear how much time has passed at the end, but Kena seems to be a practicing doctor and Ziki has returned from London.
• Wham Line: "I would like to go on a real date." It was pretty clear they were both into each other before, but Ziki makes it perfectly clear with that line.
• Where Did We Go Wrong?: When Kena's mom finds out she's been dating Ziki, she accuses Kena's father of "making" Kena queer.
  Kena's mom, to her dad: This is your fault! This child is infested with demons and it's your fault!
• Would Hit a Girl: The homophobic mob don't hesitate to beat up Kena and Ziki. Both are prominently bruised because of it afterward.