In I Am Not a Witch, the theme of othering is shown when we see Shula being treated differently from other children her age because people wanted to label her as a witch. Instead of Shula having a normal childhood and being seen as a little girl who deserves a little freedom and education, the people around her treated her as someone different from everyone else. In the film, it shows that othering allowed people to have more control and power over another person, which is seen through Shula, where people mostly controlled her every move. Two moments that stood out to me were when Shula used an ear horn (30:01) to hear different sounds, but she hears children laughing and learning in the background. What also stood out to me was when she was brought out to be on television.

Shula being able to hear the children in the background is an important moment because it reminds the people watching that Shula is still a child at the end of the day, even though society treats her as a so-called witch. Children like her are in school, socializing, and learning while Shula is separated from it all, and hearing that in the background creates this thought of the childhood Shula should be having, but we see her reality of how she lives a different life. It makes me think about how much of her life is being stripped away and the childhood she’s missing out on because of people’s beliefs. Society already decided who she was supposed to be before she got a chance to. 

Shula being shown on television stood out to me because she is being presented to the public as a witch, allowing the people watching her to judge her. The adults and the media have control over how the people perceive her, even though she’s a little girl. What then started to interest me was when a man called the network they were on, asking why Shula wasn’t in school and that Mr. Banda was using this young girl to make money and wasn’t doing what a child her age should be doing (1:02:48-1:03:19). This shows how people started seeing her differently, realizing that she is a child being taken advantage of. 

I think I Am Not a Witch shows how othering isn’t only about how people treat others as if they don’t belong, but it can also be used to control lives and take away certain opportunities from that person. Shula was treated like a witch, not a child, which allowed the adults around her to control her life. When Shula hears the voices of the children playing and learning, it reminds us of the childhood she is missing out on, while her being on television shows us how they were worried about her being a witch at first. Both of these moments tell us how people can treat someone differently without considering how that person is feeling. To me, this film shows that Shula was never the problem; it was the people who chose to treat her and see her differently.