Last fishing hope for Malawi culture

If custodians of culture were to form an army, then the maker of The Last Fishing Boat, Shemu Joyah could be marching in the front row, twirling a baton stick.

The powerful culturally charged storyline demeans a few technical problems that might be in the movie as it brings out different perspectives on cultural issues.

The Last Fishing Boat is about the clash of cultures when a white tourist makes sexual overtures towards a Malawian woman who is the third wife of an illiterate but highly proud fisherman.

The film, also directed and produced by Joyah, tells the story of the fisherman whose livelihood is being transformed by the tourism industry.

It shows the dynamics between the traditional way of life and contemporary life.

The Last Fishing Boat won an award for Best Soundtrack at the Africa Movie Academy Awards earlier this year, making this their second award.

Joyah’s ingenious storyline rises above most African movies because of the skill in characterisation.

In a society that has been morally corrupt by cultural diversity and poverty, the fisherman Yusufu still stands to protect his heritage by doing what is culturally right.

Yusufu’s powerful character anchors the movie as the actor, Hope Chisanu, translates his role to the point that it flows naturally.

Joyah deliberately makes the Yusufu character a moral pillar of the society as he stands for what he believes in, even at the risk of dire consequences.

Through Yusufu, the scriptwriter and director show how poverty results in moral decay.

Yusufu refuses to receive groceries and money from his son whose money he says is dirty money, obtained through prostitution.

He also turns down insistent overtures to sell his favourite bawo board which he inherited from his grandfather.

Gender activists and feminists will not like the way the character Abiti Anefa, played by the impressive Flora Suya, is portrayed in the movie. She is submissive and blindly loyal to her husband.

This is clearly demonstrated in the conversation between husband and wife:

Yusufu: Kodi Mkulu wa za department ya usodziyu akuganiza kuti Ndalama ndizipeza kuti?

Ndiye simukuyankha bwanji?

Abiti Anefa: Ndilibe chonena…Mesa mumanena kuti usodzi ndintchito ya azibambo?

Joyah realises gender roles in Malawian culture and he expresses it through Abiti Anefa who knows and accepts her place.

In a traditional Malawian setting, women only offer amnesty to talk about such issues at pamondo.

From a Western point of view, Abiti Anefa is a woman who is being abused right from the beginning of her marriage.

On the contrary, Abiti Anefa is a proud third wife.

She tells Richard, the tourist who makes sexual overtures towards her, that it is okay for a man to be polygamous rather than being adulterous.

As if that is not enough, Joyah brings in Europeans’ hypocrisy by portraying the Malawian polygamous family as harmonious and happy while the European couple is unhappy.

Sovereignty for a country like Malawi is sometimes questionable where donors keep on dictating what Malawians should do as a condition for receiving aid.

Joyah brings out the issue as he portrays Richard as a person who is always thinking he can buy his way out of anything.

Richard offers to pay in order to have sex with Abiti Anefa.

Mustafa represents the moral decay of the society as he will do anything for money.

Joyah shows rebellion in this character by deliberately portraying him as a smoker although his father Yusufu disapproves of smoking and drinking.

As if that is not enough, Mustafa tries to sleep with his step mother.

Reading between the lines, one finds The Last Fishing Boat as criticism of importing cultures and brings out several cultural issues.

Culture is symbolically represented as the bawo board and it is when one starts to watch the movie in those lines that they start to appreciate the cultural worth of The Last Fishing Boat.