From Vioja Mahakamani to Daktari March 2018 | Page 11

Review:
Intellectual
Scum takes a
dig at Africans’
‘laziness’
Imagine sitting on a plane,
minding your own business
and constantly glancing
at your watch like any
B y J ennifer O chieng ’
(who happens to be white)
explodes into a rant about
how Africans just sit there
and let things happen.
adapted the script from an
article written by Zambian
intellectual Field Ruwe
about a real-life encounter
Of course, Njue adds his
own twists to the story by
first painting Walter as a
victim of slum mugging
where he loses his gold
watch, similar (if not exact)
to the one that now adorns
his seatmate’s (Ruwe) wrist.
It is this gold watch that
triggers the outburst that
pits us all against one man
talking trash about Africa.
“Amazing how you all
just sit there, just watch
yourselves die,” so begins
Walter before he eases into
a full-blown outburst that
in a different setting might
proper African intellectual
Sounds like something only
a racist would do, no?
Hold that thought and
Movie on diabetes stigma... continued.
walk with me into the
death globally and diabetes is
airplane-confined world
the 4th main contributor.
of Intellectual Scum.
Written and directed by
Misconceptions surround
Kevin Njue (18 Hours),
the disease, making life
Intellectual Scum is
harder for those who live
a Kenyan short film
with it. If you have heard
released in 2015 that
anything about diabetes, you
takes a harsh approach
have also probably heard
to Africa’s narrative
some stereotypes about the
of victimhood by
disease and the people who
presenting the continent
have it.
through the eyes of an
Too Sweet was shot late in
unbearable passenger
2017 and is set to premier
on a commercial plane.
later this year.
Njue, who won a Kalasha
award for the film,
then boom! your seatmate
Things go left fast when he starts
bragging about the white man’s superiority
on how they invented the light bulb and
built planes like the one they are flying on
while Africans sit and do nothing about
the deplorable state of the continent.
with a white man aboard a
commercial plane from Los
Angeles to Boston on New
Year’s eve. Jason Corder
(Stay) plays the white
passenger Walter while
Patrick Oketch (Mother-in-
Law) bears the brunt of his
tirade as Ruwe.
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have earned him one or two
punches in the face (okay
maybe three).
At first, Walter sounds
just like any blatant racist
out there trying to belittle
Africans but unclench your
fists, give him time and
he starts to make sense,