00:00:11 TITLE Lake Victoria, Kisumu, Kenya
00:00:12 TITLE
Fish is the only source of income in the communities
00:00:19 TITLE
Women are prohibited from fishing
00:00:24 TITLE
Polygamy is legal and pervasive
00:00:27 TITLE
The HIV rate is nearly 30% in the area
00:00:31 LUCY
(Speaking in Luo):
If I can have a boat, I can make a change
I will have my own fish
Jaboya is a big problem in this area
I have been tested HIV negative which is a huge privilege to me
These fisherman don’t help us a lot
What they do is to have sex with you
And only give us some small fish that aren’t even enough…
That is what I am hoping can stop on our beach
00:00:49 A boat painted with titular words:
NO SEX FOR FISH
00:00:54 TITLE In 2010 the US Peace Corps began donating boats to women with the help of VIRED International, a local NGO.
00:01:04 TITLE Very few women have received boats
00:01:23 LUCY Nyakabala, you are here.
00:01:29 LUCY (OS) Hi Arok
Can I be able to get fish?
00:01:32 TITLE Lucy
Fish Trader
00:01:35 LUCY (TO ANOTHER WOMAN) There are very few Nile perch in that boat, and very few Omena
00:01:39 WOMAN (TO LUCY) Who is the owner of that boat?
00:01:41 LUCY (TO WOMAN) This is the boat that just returned from the lake
Omena very tiny today
Can you help me to wash the Omena before I go to another boat?
00:01:52 LUCY TALKING TO FISHERMAN
00:01:55 FISHERMAN How many fish do you want?
00:01:56 LUCY Three containers
Can you give me a free sample of the fish?
I am not quarreling. I am just asking for the free sample.
00:02:12 LUCY Can you give me the free sample and I will go
00:02:16 LUCY (Wider shot of boats) Even if I pay 200 shillings, you will say it is not enough.
No I am tired.
00:02:26 LUCY I’ve finished, I’m going.
00:02:30 WOMAN (OS – TO LUCY) Why didn’t you get the fish?
00:02:32 LUCY (only skirt is visible) I tried to give the crew 200 shillings, but they still refused to give me the fish.
00:02:37 LUCY If he gives you the fish
He will have to have sex with you
He gives me fish two times a week
I have to have sex with him on the two days
00:02:52 LUCY (walking) All the fish that came from this boat are all gone. We will wait for another boat.
00:02:59 LUCY George, can I check another boat?
00:03:10 LUCY George, George!
Nyasidho asked me to give you this sieve
00:03:14 GEORGE (OS) There is no fish
00:03:16 LUCY Oh, there is no fish…
00:03:34 LUCY George is there. But there’s no fish.
00:03:44 LUCY Another boat is coming
00:03:48 LUCY He comes to my house, as my husband died so he’s not there.
I have five children
I’ve been having jaboya
Because it is providing for my livelihood
Jaboya is providing for my children
But I am praying that I will stop this soon
As long as there is an alternative open for me
I have to do it now because there is no other way
00:04:13 TITLE Eric
Fisherman
00:04:13 ERIC (Speaking in Luo):
Subtitles
Jaboya started during our grandfathers’ times
We were born and we followed
Initially it started
Because you needed someone to sell your fish to market
In the beginning it wasn’t done for sex
It was just like, this is my major customer
When I come with fish, I have to give it to my customer
But it changed over time to be a sexual relationship
I have three sex partners
00:04:34 MAN SITTING BEHIND ERIC I only have one
00:05:03 ERIC I was born here in Nyamware
I have worked elsewhere but decided to come home.
To fish, to get something to help my family
My earning depends very much on the daily catch
If he catch is little, I can get 300 shillings
If the catch is rather high
I can get 800 shillings per day
I’ve fished for a long time
I really want to own a boat, but I still can’t.
Because of the little catch we usually get
My child will be very happy if I have a boat
I want to have a boat…
So I can be a person of high value in my society
00:06:02 TITLE Agnes
Pioneering Woman Boat Owner
00:06:14 AGNES (Speaking in Luo)
When I got the boat some of my friends got jealous
Some women admired me
And came to ask how they could join
Some children who dropped out of school
I employed them to work on the boat
00:06:34 CHILD COUGHING
00:06:40 AGNES TO CHILD Help me gather the sorghum baby
00:07:05 AGNES TO BABY Just ask. What is it?
You don’t even know your name and you are going to school.
You’ve been going to school and you don’t know your name!
What are you eating?
00:07:20 MAN’S VOICE (OS) The baby resembles the father huh… is he the one we saw on the beach?
00:07:25 AGNES No, you didn’t see him at Nyamware
The father drives a soda tuk-tuk
00:07:32 MAN’S VOICE (OS) The tuk-tuk driver is your son?
00:07:36 AGNES That is my third-born son
He got a job in Rabuor
My nets were taken away by the Fisheries Department
So there is no way for him to fish and feed the children
00:07:49 MAN’S VOICE (OS) Is he one of the crews on the boat?
00:07:51 AGNES There was nothing he could get there
So I told him to go out of the beach
He can at least bring something back
00:08:00 AGNES DAUGHTER My mother is a widow
My father left us when we were still young
When I was two years old, my mum struggled
She was a fish monger
She helped us to go to school
Pay for my school fees
Now I’m in Form 3 (Grade 11)
00:08:22 AGNES I’m happy!
Happy
The No Sec For Fish project let me see so many faces
Both national and international
Some people said we shouldn’t speak about Jaboya
But we insisted because we knew that if we keep it a secret
The problem will still be there
That’s why we spoke out and joined the group
To be empowered and manage our boats
00:08:46 AGNES (close up) Before the project
Young crews could even have sex with older women
And that was a problem
Now our group can initiate empowerment on the beach
00:09:07 TITLE Entirely male boat crews, unafraid of reprisal, also make it difficult for women who do own boats
00:09:18 AGNES (TO PINK-SHIRTED MAN) The crew leaders said that you were given tilapia from my boat
00:09:23 PINK-SHIRTED MAN (to AGNRES) I was only given catfish, not tilapia
It was small, just the size of my palm
00:09:31 AGNES (TO PINK-SHIRTED MAN) Just go. I’ll come to hear out the dispute.
00:09:35 PINK-SHIRTED MAN Well if there’s something strange going on
I don’t want to go and fish if that’s the case
00:09:47 AGNES (TO BALD WOMAN) These crews are suddenly stealing my fish
That’s why yesterday they came back from Moses and almost got arrested.
00:09:58 AGNES (walking with BALD WOMAN and TWO OLDER MEN) It’s painful
So painful.
Well that’s what they’ve done
They have sold some
Because there is another market in the lake
Once they’ve sold the fish… what is done is done
00:10:10 BALD WOMAN There is a small black market there… it’s why they arrive with no fish.
00:10:12 AGNES That’s now his money… stolen money
It’s about time to bring back fish t the beach
00:10:17 MAN WALKING BY Just keep working with the crews… there’s nothing you can do.
(AGNES laughs)
00:10:49 TITLE Lorene
Boat owner, previously practiced jaboya
00:10:49 LORENE (Speaking English)
We decided because we only see a man with the boats, so he wanted to test whether women can also do this work.
And after which, when he gave us the boat we find that we can do it.
00:11:02 LORENE (Cont’d, initially as VO) There are very many widowed women… and the women never have power on the beach.
So it is just like… they were now trading under the men called jaboya, to get some fish. So this is why Dominic decided, and said no, the women must also have a boat to see the goodness of having a boat.
There are some seasons… there are some seasons when the catch is good, and some seasons when it is very little… like now.
So it is forcing us to choose some other business like farming now. Now we are growing tomatoes and we can go to other businesses because fishing is not good. That is all we know…we don’t rely on fishing alone.
00:11:49 LORENE We might call a group of people and tell them about the jaboya the goodness and the badness of jaboya. And they will tell you, you are telling us because you already have the boat and you are getting something. What about me?
You are telling us and we don’t have anything, no other source of income. When we stop, are you going to give us that of yours. You are speaking because you have the boat. You have the nets. You are getting something. What about us?
00:12:25 LUCY (speaking to her SON) (speaking in Luo)
Take your school bag
00:13:14 MAN SPEAKING TO LUCY (speaking in Luo)
Come, follow me, there is something I want from you.
I want you to re-marry.
That is what I feel for you.
00:13:22 LUCY (laughing in response)
Whatever! If you are heard, I don’t know what will happen to you.
00:13:28 MAN I want you to get rid of your jaboya.
00:13:31 LUCY I’ve stopped practicing jaboya.
00:13:37 LUCY And I don’t want to hear anything about jaboya.
00:13:43 MAN People are stopping you from jaboya?
00:13:45 LUCY Who says we are stopping it? (laughs)
00:13:59 ERIC (initially VO) We can get new sex partners when we meet new women.
When you see that woman
She is pretty. She talks nice.
You need to include her in the system.
We have many sex partners because we use condoms.
You see we are still very healthy
We have been tested, we are safe.
00:14:15 LORENE Let’s say… around the lake many of them are positive. Yes because of the jaboya practice.
You may go with somebody and you don’t know if this person is sick or how…because normally they just go without knowing their status.
So this one has made a very big spread of HIV
00:14:35 LORNE Yes. I got tested and I’m positive.
There’s nothing I can do. I went to the hospital, I was in counseling, I was told I have to stay…
After that so I’m just comfortable, I know my status, I know how to control myself know.
00:14:50 LORENE (Grunting, swaddling a baby)
What I can tell them is that they can just have some business, when there is no fish... they can go to this other business than having jaboya to get fish.
Because having jaboya is not the solution, you can’t solve anything.
00:15:12 ERIC It takes time for jaboya to end.
These women take my fish to the market
If I marry them, that business will not continue.
The women will be at home, and I am still in the water.
So I need other women to sell my fish.
Not every woman does jaboya
The way she talks and behaves can tell you that she is asking for something else.
Others just come and ask for the fish straight away.
00:15:38 ERIC Not all of them. Only the one I have spoken to… the one who comes to me and persuades me.
Then we will engage in sexual act.
The women really enjoy the sex.
Not only for fish.
And for us fishermen, we need to relieve ourselves.
That is what is taking place.
That is the truth I’m talking about.
00:16:06 LORENE Maybe there are women… women that doesn’t have a husband. The widows like I told you.
And somebody is like ‘I can’t stay without a man’.
So this is why they go to attract these young men to be with them.
00:16:21 ERIC We know that this practice is not good for us.
But there is pressure
If the women come to you and you resist,
They will say that you are boring and you are not a man.
We want to tell them that we can do this, we are strong.
00:17:12 LORENE Like here, we have five boats.
And these five boats cannot provide for the whole community.
So if the boats can be like twenty or ten, they can still help some other people practicing jaboya.
The way the boats were brought it is good.
But when there is no fish, like now, the women might go back to jaboya because there are people who just depend on their boat.
But now there is no fish, they can go back.
So what I can advise them, is that people should have some business – not only for fishing alone.
There can be a brighter future... yeah the way I’m seeing it.
Because once you’ve started something, you have realized the badness, the goodness
So you can keep on. Yeah.
00:18:16 TITLE In July 2014,
The U.S. Peace Corps leave Kenya.
The No Sex For Fish project continues on.
00:18:24 DANCING WOMEN Singing about the end of jaboya.
00:18:39 FILM TITLE NO SEX FOR FISH
00:18:43 CREDITS A film by Xinwei Cui
Co-producer and Second Camera
Michael Newton-McLaughlin
Special thanks to:
Lucy
Agnes
Lorene
And the Kisumu Beach Communities
Dan Abuto
David
Lori Armstrong
J.B. Okeyo-Owuor
Victoria Mapplebeck
Helen Littleboy
VIRED International
Beyond Your World
One World Media
U.S. Peace Corps
Royal Holloway, University of London