The Rape of the Samburu Women
For more than fifty years, England has maintained military training facilities in the Samburu region of its former colony, Kenya. During this period, women in the area have faced an epidemic of rape. Women from the Samburu, Massai, Rendile and Turkana indigenous communities have filed more than 600 official rape claims against British soldiers. Yet, despite documentation of their claims, a three-year internal investigation by the Royal Military Police (RMP) cleared all soldiers of wrongdoing. Meanwhile, the victims have been shamed and outcast in their communities, many to the point of exile. In the mid-1990s, Beatrice Chili responded to this situation by establishing the village of Senchen, a self-sufficient community run entirely by women. There, women build homes, weave textiles, gather and grow food, and raise children. This short film visits the brave women of Senchen, who speak candidly about their suffering and talk passionately about their demands for justice.
Watch the film to hear their stories and to find out how you can offer your support.
This scene, which was not in the book, is a scene right out of my own life. When Christopher Isherwood wrote this book in 1964, set in 1962, it was a landmark book, because it depicted a same-sex relationship in an absolutely matter-of-fact way. And I wanted to show George’s life with Jim in a very simple, straightforward way. Occasionally to this day, I still have friends who’ll say something to me about my lifestyle. And I think, what does that mean? I’ve lived with the same person for the last twenty three years. We read books, we walk our dogs, we argue sometimes, we go on vacation, we cook dinner, and we have a life very much like it’s depicted here with George and Jim.
Tom Ford, on the commentary track for A Single Man
This scene reminds me of this quote from the book,
Think of two people, living together day after day, year after year, in this small space, standing elbow to elbow cooking at the same small stove, squeezing past each other on the narrow stairs, shaving in front of the same small bathroom mirror, constantly jogging, jostling, bumping against each other’s bodies by mistake or on purpose, sensually, aggressively, awkwardly, impatiently, in rage or in love - think what deep though invisible tracks they must leave, everywhere, behind them!
