Friday 3 March 2023, 5 pm
LSK Room, Wadham Access Centre, Wadham College
All welcome
Join the Intersectional Humanities community in a relaxed and friendly setting to watch Wanuri Kahiu’s 2009 short film Pumzi and discuss Afrofuturism and Black Feminist Ecological thought with reference to the film and a short article by James Wachira.
Pumzi is an Afrofuturist short film by the Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu. It's set in the aftermath of World War Three, a worldwide war over water, and explores the potential social, political, and psychological implications of a world defined by the intensified scarcity of resources. James Wachira's article 'Wangari Maathai’s environmental Afrofuturist imaginary in Wanuri Kahiu’s Pumzi' (2020) reflects on the entwining of environmentalism and Afrofuturism in the film and its relationship to the environmental thought of Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
We will watch Pumzi together at the start of the session but you can watch it online here.
You can read Wachira's article here:
Wachira: Wangari Maathai's Environmental Afrofuturist imaginary in Wanuri Kahui's Pumzi
This reading is to be used for individual research purposes only.
If you're keen for further context we recommend watching or reading Wangari Maathai's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech [available here] and reading Dr Chelsea Mikael Frazier's 'Black Feminist Ecological Thought: A Manifesto', both widely available online.
For more information email intersectionalhumanities@torch.ox.ac.uk.
Intersectional Humanities, TORCH Programmes
