Swahili is not the most common language in films, but that is exactly the aspect of the movie industry that Tanzanian director Josiah Kibira wants to change.
The Fowler Museum hosted his film “Tusamehe” on Saturday, which was intended to promote Swahili filmmaking and to introduce the new UCLA Travel Study program to Tanzania.
Swahili, which is spoken by 100 million people, is used over a large part of the East African coast, stretching from Somalia to Mozambique.
The film “Tusamehe,” which translates to “forgive me,” tells the story of a successful young African couple living in Minneapolis and the chaos into which their lives are thrown when the husband discovers he has AIDS.
Kibira said the film emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and is a chilling reminder that the virus does not discriminate in terms of wealth and can affect anyone.
“It was a very real story for me,” said Kibira, speaking after the film. “I lost a sister, I lost a brother, I’ve lost cousins, I’ve lost a lot of people. The message is that nobody is immune to AIDS.”
The movie was filmed from a rare viewpoint of African immigrants in the Midwest, and some students said it was important to see this different view of the United States.
“A lot of people think that AIDS only affects the poorest African communities,” said Cassandra Tesch, a first-year graduate student studying Portuguese. The characters in Kibira’s film are successful members of the middle class.
As well as promoting the film for educational purposes, Kibira came to support the new UCLA Travel Study program to Tanzania. Students who take the course will spend two weeks in the city of Dar es Salaam, which includes an internship working on Kibira’s latest film, and three weeks on the island nation of Zanzibar.
Katrina Thompson, a representative from the linguistics department, said this is a completely new program for UCLA and an opportunity for students to sample a completely different culture.
“They’ll be living with host families, they’ll be totally immersed,” she said.
Though UCLA has programs in other African countries, this is the first time UCLA will send students to Tanzania.
Kathleen Micham, public manager for UCLA Summer Sessions, said responses to a Senegal program were extremely positive and quite different from those for European programs. She said that students who have gone on these programs return with greatly altered perspectives on American life.
Kibira’s films are privately financed on shoestring budgets – “Tusamehe” was filmed, produced and distributed on $20,000 – and made by largely volunteer casts and crews.
Yet Kibira and his actors have begun to create a fan base in the entertainment industry. Mark Valley, from the television show “Boston Legal,” came to watch the film because he admires the two leading actors of the film, he told the director.
Kibira said Tanzania’s film industry is very limited and mostly makes films in English. He is one of few Tanzanian directors filming in Swahili, describing himself as a “trailblazer.”
His said his mission is to raise the bar for movies in Swahili, and to help the language gain further recognition.
“When you buy a movie here you can watch it in Spanish, in English, why not in Swahili?” said Kibira.
Kibira said most people only know one Swahili phrase, made popular by the movie “The Lion King.”
“Everybody knows hakuna matata, that’s actually a line in Swahili, but that’s it,” he said.
Kibira says his goal is to earn greater international recognition for the Swahili language and its films, instead of limiting it to a single phrase.