Rungano Nyoni’s film “I am Not a Witch”‘s second scene begins with a young girl in a police station, surrounded by adults all clamoring for the attention of the police officer behind the desk. The girl, an orphan, is being accused of being a witch. She does not belong in their village, the woman who brought her says. All around her, men and women are shouting about her being a witch, and the young girl does not confirm, nor does she deny it. A witch doctor and a dead chicken ultimately decide that the young girl is a witch and her life is forever changed. 

When I watched ”I am not a Witch” it was clear to me what the “other” was. It wasn’t just one thing however. It was Shula versus the villagers who wanted her gone, it was the women who were exiled versus everyone else. It is powerful versus helpless, and even the concept of witch versus goats.

 “Are you a Witch, or a goat?” is even outright asked in the film in the clip below. (Around the 0:21 minute mark). Shula does not have to be a witch, she could instead choose to be a goat if she really wants her freedom that badly. Shula chooses to be a witch.

 Witches in the film “I am Not a Witch” are women who have no families. They are widows, and orphans, or women who would be in the way. They are tied down, quite literally, to the earth they are forced to work every day. No one speaks for them, no one tries to protect them. The male witch doctors are feared and respected, considered powerful. But not Shula and the other women.

Mr. Bandy the rich politician who adopts Shula, exploits these witches and Shula specifically. His wife Charity is revealed to be a witch as well. But through her marriage she is “respectable” and so removing her ribbon will not turn her into a goat. Marriage is the only thing protecting her from being just like the witches in the camps. Shula is brought around by Mr. Brandy, carted around in a bus to basically be used to show off – my first actual thought was that she was like a show pony for him. She is a cash cow to this already wealthy, powerful man while she has no say, no rights. Shula endures vicious threats of violence as it is made clear witches are not accepted. In the eyes of the people around her, she is not ”one of us”. Even Clarity, the woman who earned her safety through “respectability” is tormented by people in the city outside of the grocery store for her spool of ribbon. She is a witch and witches are them. But after enduring so much, what Shula would rather be is a goat. 

Ultimately, Shula’s fate is unclear to the viewer of the film. There is the funeral and the mourners who sing a song in honor of Shula, celebrating her life, but her body is never shown. But in that moment, in that  haunting funeral scene as the other women sing around Shula, she is part of something and it is beautiful to see. To the witches, she is one of them, not one of us.