A Romantic Wednesday Night and the Secret of the Sacred Water March 24, 2017
On the screen of Worldfilm festival on Wednesday night we saw men paddling on lake Kivu, looking for the meaning of life. They were on the Sacred Water, on the lake which, according to a folk tale, was created thousands of years ago from the ejaculation, or kunyaza, of the queen of Rwanda. The film „Sacred Water“ by the Belgian filmmaker Olivier Jourdain describes sexuality and traditions cocnnected to it in East Africa.
In the film, the topic is approached through a radio program led by Vestine. Women discuss sexuality and its improtance in maintaining a relationship and in people’s lives generally. Sex has an essential role , but even more essential, at least according to the film, is female ejaculation. It seems that if a woman cannot produce sacred water, the relationship is doomed, since about 80 % if Rwandan men prefer women with flowing waters.
Rwandan men would probably be very sad in the United Kingdom or in Australia where the general belief is that female ejaculation is nothing more than urination and showing it in pornography is forbidden based on the argument that it does not exist. „Sacred Water“ in turn shows the importance of kunyaza in Rwandan culture.
Although the theme is the pleasure of women, the main focus of the film is the idea that it is necessary for men. „God created the experience for women, but its goal is peace of mind and pleasure of men.“ Women generally also talk about their experiences through men: it is a great honour if a man finds the water. A serious point of concern is the situation where a woman cannot ejaculate. Telling the story in a visual language, activities or problems which might become an obstacle do not get any attention. In the film we see how a young woman goes to the doctor with her problem and is bombarded with a load of questions from whether she has malaria to if she is cheating on her husband. Because what else could prevent her from reaching kunyaza?
So as viewers we could ask from whose point of view does the film approach the topic of sexuality? It seems that the answer is the men who boast with their skills of playing the instrument called a woman. No men were shown who would have said that they can not manage to make their woman ecstatic. What was shown were women who worried how and in which ways they could manage to ejaculate. They even practice gukuna, which is essentially stretching one’s inner labia, since they believed it would help with kunyaza. The reason why women did not comment on their activities as freely might have also been induced by the fact that the author of the film was a man. Perhaps women did not dare to voice their opinions to him.
Everyone curious must find out themselves whether the Sacred Water really exists or not.. A great background material with some instructions has been provided to us in the form of this film.
„Sacred Water“ was screened at Worldfilm on Wednesday night.