Synopsis
Our Land, Our Freedom tells the story of 2 extraordinary Kenyan women - a mother and daughter, Mukami and Wanjugu Kimathi - who share a mission to shine a light on the too-long-kept secret atrocities of British colonial rule in Kenya.
After the legendary freedom fighter, Dedan Kimathi, was hanged by the British colonial regime in 1957 for leading Kenya’s 1950s independence struggle, they secretly dumped his body. Now, his daughter, Wanjugu, joins her mother’s decades long quest, searching for his remains.
Along her journey she meets elder freedom fighters and land rights advocates who tell her of British concentration camps, torture, starvation and land theft that left hundreds of thousands of Kenyans destitute. Wanjugu’s mission expands and, working closely with her mother, she transforms into a powerful leader, exposing colonial crimes, while building a grassroots movement for land resettlement.
This intimate portrayal of a daughter’s mission to bring peace to her mother, exposes the dark chapter of colonialism in Kenya, and features Mukami and Wanjugu's powerful interventions to shift it's legacy: a story that will reverberate not only in Kenya, but also in countries impacted by colonialism across the world.
Director's
Note
Our motivation stems from the belief that it is time that Kenyans author their own history. We were both born in independent Kenya but, having been taught a British history at school, we knew nothing of the true nature of colonial rule. We wish to challenge British accounts and centre the Kenyan experience; to tell of what ordinary Kenyans suffered under colonialism - and of the independence struggle - by those who lived it, so that future generations have a more accurate perspective of this era. We wish to connect the dots between historical context and present-day issues, emphasizing that colonialism is not a closed chapter of the past; rather it is alive today in its profound impacts.
