Movie review: Kazungu (51 mins)

Kazungu (le Métis), is a touching film autobiography by Georges Kamanayo (2000) French original with English subtitles.

Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Georges Kamanayo. Courtesy photo.

Kazungu (le Métis), is a touching film autobiography by Georges Kamanayo (2000) French original with English subtitles. It was organised by the German Cultural Centre Liaison Office, Kigali and shown at Ishyo Theatre Hall, Kacyiru, on Tuesday April 3, at 6:30 pm.Georges Kamanayo was born in Rwanda in 1947, the ‘forbidden fruit’ of a relationship between a Rwandan woman and a white Belgian colonist. His father was a wealthy industrialist, the owner of tin mines, married and had a son. His mother was poor, had no place to go with her mixed race child. Not accepted by the black community, even a place in his father’s manor house was no option. The small kazungu (‘de white one,’ as his nickname was) attended a Catholic boarding school in neighbouring  DR Congo, and at the age of 14, was taken to Belgium to start a new life with a strange family and given the name Georges. In this film the now grown-up cameraman and filmmaker, follows the trail back to his native country. He finds his mother, who has survived the genocide and still lives in Rwanda. Some years later, his search for the past is completed, when Georges also meets his now old father, who is living in the south of France. The film was introduced by the film director himself.