South Sudanese Movie Review: Marley & Me

When I was in Mapourdit last month, a coworker’s wife who lives in a village nearby came to join us for the week. We stayed at the guesthouse for the Mapourdit Hospital, a Catholic institution begun in the early 1990s as people were fleeing to Mapourdit for its forests where the Sudanese army couldn't find them. During the war and since, the hospital has saved many, many lives.

My colleague’s wife is in many respects a village girl. She is not unscientific, but nor is she afraid of illness, which is a pretty standard feature of village life. This acceptance allowed her to give some psyche-saving advice one morning when my stomach was in particular turmoil (the story is too gross for the internet, but feel free to ask). She lives in a tukul; she typically pounds her grain before she cooks it; getting water involves a long walk; she can easily and unselfconsciously recall times as a little girl when she was excited to receive sweets from “the whites.” But she was well-educated in Dinka and in English, and also speaks Arabic. She did secondary schooling in Kampala and Nairobi, particularly enjoying her time living in a loft in downtown Nairobi (as would I).

But there were some things about life beyond the village that did not sit right. One of those things was a televised broadcast of Marley and Me, a movie about an American family and its dog which in 2008 set a Christmas day record with $14.75 million in revenues.

“When I was in Kenya, I saw this movie. There were some whites from America and they had this very big dog that lived inside the house. The father loved that dog so much, and it would even sleep in the bed. And then the dog got sick and it was admitted [to the hospital]—just like a person! It was even on the table with the doctor! The dog died and he was so sad; they had funeral for the dog… I didn’t like that movie.”

Sometimes I think South Sudanese life is totally weird and incomprehensible. But I'm pretty much forced to admit, she's got me on this one.

- John

photo from imdb.com