The Chameleon Bush

THE FEAR, ALWAYS THE FEAR

TITLE – NYUMBANI, KENYA.

101 EXT. SHANTY TOWN ADJACENT TO KENYA’S CAPITAL, NAIROBI. DAY

MONTAGE of extensive shanty town.

CAMERA ZOOMS to scenes described by NARRATOR.

NARRATOR (O.S.)

Children play in fetid pools beside dead dogs. Rats scurry through cracks in walls. Chickens search garbage for maggots, and goats eat plastic bags. Scavenging kites and other birds wheel overhead during the day and look down on a garbage mountain teeming with people trying to glean subsistence from the waste of their fellow humans. By night, the birds and people sleep, and the mountain becomes the territory of dogs which roam in packs and thrive on the detritus of human misery.

Nyumbani brings out the best in people; it brings out the worst. It is kindness and deceit. It is laughter and misery. It is hope and despair. And it is home – whether the dwelling is a ramshackle hut, an abandoned car, or a cardboard shelter – home to a million Kenyans, one of whom is Ruth.

102 EXT/INT. RUTH’S HUT. DAY.

CAMERA shows a ONE-ROOMED HUT built of corrugated iron sheets, wooden planks and sun-baked clay. Floor is earth.

NARRATOR (O.S.)

With its leaky roof and lack of amenities, there is little to distinguish Ruth’s hut from countless similar huts set in the intimacy of poverty in one of the numerous alleyways which grope their way through Nyumbani.

Ruth, though, has transformed the inside by painting the walls, hanging a family photo and pinning up her children’s drawings. This is the home she shares with her son Juma, her daughter Patience, and her mother Njoki.

ZOOM OUT to general views of alleyways.

NARRATOR (O.S.)

Tension, though, is building in Nyumbani. The fabric of life is changing, crumbling, unravelling. Even the dogs sense it.

Tonight they run by, whimpering.

103 INT. RUTH’S HUT. NIGHT. (RUTH’S POV)

RUTH, NJOKI, PATIENCE and JUMA share a single bed with shabby bedding.

SOUND: pounding feet in the alleyway outside.

RUTH (20s, African) sits up, instantly alert.

NJOKI (40s) snores, PATIENCE (7 y.o.) stirs, JUMA (4 y.o.) wakes.

JUMA

Mama, what is it?

RUTH

Sh!

RUTH puts an arm round JUMA and draws him close.

SOUND: footsteps in the alleyway coming nearer. Muffled voices. The sounds continue past the door and carry on.

SOUNDS; shouting and screaming nearby.

JUMA buries his face in RUTH’S neck. PATIENCE wakes and whimpers. RUTH draws her children close.

NJOKI, slips off the bed and creeps to the door to listen. Cockroaches scuttle away from her feet.

Shouting and screaming stop, leaving a tense silence.

SOUNDS: pounding footsteps return past the door and fade.

NJOKI

Things are getting bad.

She shuffles back to bed.

104 EXT. NYUMBANI, DAY.

MONTAGE of smashed doors, ransacked huts and traumatised families.

RUTH goes with JUMA and PATIENCE to help those who’ve been attacked. She offers some maize meal, a few vegetables, sweets for the children and comfort for the traumatised.

105 INT. RUTH’S HUT, NIGHT. (RUTH’S POV)

Two days later.

SOUND: the pounding footsteps return.

The same routine: RUTH’S arms of comfort for JUMA and PATIENCE, NJOKI listening at the door.

This time the footsteps do not continue on.

SOUND: whispering outside the door.

ZOOM TO: door with feeble lock and flimsy bolts.

The crack of light filtering through the woodwork is blocked.

JUMA whimpers. RUTH shushes him.

The whispering stops. Tense silence descends.

SOUNDS: a RAT gnaws at something in the roof. A MAN snores in the adjacent hut. A CHILD calls out nearby.

NJOKI puts her ear to the door.

RUTH and the children cower on the bed against the wall.

JUMA’S sharp nails dug into RUTH’S arm.

SOUND: someone tries the door handle.

NJOKI

(shouts)

Go away!

MAN’S VOICE (O.S.)

Where’s Olembo?

NJOKI

He’s not here. Go away!

SOUND: men whispering.

MAN’S VOICE (O.S.)

Open the door.

NJOKI

There’s no Olembo here.

SOUND: a dog barks nearby.

MAN’S VOICE (O.S.)

Open the door.

NJOKI

Olembo doesn’t live—

SOUND: a crash against the flimsy woodwork.

The lock and bolts fly off. The door bursts open, hurling NJOKI backwards. Her head strikes the table. She lies still.

Shadowy figures storm into the hut, rip pictures off the wall, ransack cupboards, smash chairs, turn over the bed, kick NJOKI.

SOUNDS: ragged breathing of the men, but no words spoken.

Having failed to find Olembo, these silent raiders depart, leaving RUTH and her children frozen in terror.

NJOKI lies in an ever-widening pool of blood.

SOUND: Someone from a neighbouring hut shouts for quiet.

JUMA

(whispers)

Mama, who’s Olembo?

RUTH

I don’t know.

106 INT/EXT. RUTH’S HUT, NEXT DAY. (JUMA’S POV)

JUMA wakes with the sun shining in through the open doorway.

The alleyway outside is full of people, including a film crew comprising a white WOMAN REPORTER and a white CAMERA-MAN.

The WOMAN REPORTER is talking in a loud voice which JUMA struggles to understand.

WOMAN REPORTER

I’m standing in Nyumbani, Nairobi’s largest shantytown and the scene of some of the worst violence since accusations were made of vote-rigging in Kenya’s recent elections.

The CAMERA-MAN points his camera at the huts, at torn posters and a dead goat being pecked by crows. CAMERA swings round to show RUTH and PATIENCE huddled together, and a shape on the ground under a blanket, with feet sticking out.

JUMA runs outside.

JUMA

Mama, what is it?

WOMAN REPORTER

Viewers at home may find some of the images distressing, as tribalism once again rears its ugly head.

The CAMERA-MAN turns his CAMERA to the shape on the ground.

JUMA

Is that Bibi? (translates as: “Granny”)

RUTH nods.

JUMA

Will she get better?

PATIENCE

Of course not! She’s dead.

She bursts into tears.

WOMAN REPORTER

When politics tears a nation apart, it is the poor who suffer.

She comes to RUTH and her children. JUMA cowers against RUTH.

WOMAN REPORTER

I’ve come to interview Mary – not her real name – who with her children was caught up in last night’s violence.

(holds out the microphone)

Will you tell us in your own words what happened.

CAMERA-MAN fiddles with the controls on his CAMERA.

WOMAN REPORTER

Can you tell our viewers what it was like to have your home destroyed.

JUMA feels his mother silently sobbing.

WOMAN REPORTER

I believe your mother died in the attack on your house.

She smiles and waits. RUTH doesn’t respond.

WOMAN REPORTER

Cut!

CAMERA-MAN

(shouts)

Does anyone who was attacked speak English?

People shuffle their feet and look away.

WOMAN REPORTER

Damn.

CAMERA-MAN

Fuck.

WOMAN REPORTER

Nothing more we can do here. Let’s go.

She gives JUMA a sweet; then puts one in her mouth. She holds a handkerchief to her nose and scrapes her shoe against a stone to remove a dog mess.

JUMA watches them walk away. He looks at the sweet he’s been given and throws it away.

RUTH bends down to JUMA.

RUTH

We have to go to Nyeri today.

JUMA

Why?

RUTH

Because that is where… where we’re taking Bibi.

JUMA

Why?

RUTH stifles a sob.

RUTH

To bury her in her Kikuyu homeland.

JUMA

How will we go to that place?

RUTH

A truck is coming to take us.

JUMA waits all day but the truck doesn’t come.

In the evening some men carry NJOKI’S body back into the hut.

107 INT/EXT. RUTH’S HUT, NEXT DAY. (JUMA’S POV)

JUMA wakes after another restless night and lies peering at the shape on the floor. The shape covered by a blanket; the shape that is his grandmother. A rat is sniffing it.

JUMA shouts and the rat runs off.

RUTH and PATIENCE, also in the bed, wake and sit up.

SOUND: a knock on the door.

JUMA scrambles off the bed.

JUMA

Go away!

RUTH

Who is it?

KAMAU (O.S.)

Everything is arranged. I got a message to your father in Nyeri.

RUTH moves the chair aside which keeps the door shut. Their friend, KAMAU (30ish, slim, fit-looking), stands outside with two other men.

KAMAU

The truck is ready. Can we take her?

RUTH nods.

The three men come in, wrap NJOKI in the blanket and carry her to a pick-up truck waiting at the end of the alleyway.

RUTH

Come, children.

RUTH leads the children to the PICK-UP. JUMA wears a faded Batman T-shirt and ragged shorts but no shoes. He clings to RUTH’S hand.

A number of weeping women follow.

The PICK-UP has a big dent in one door and a broken headlight. Red ribbons are tied to the wing mirrors.

The DRIVER leans against the cab smoking a cigarette. He tosses it aside as they approach and undoes the tailgate.

The men lay NJOKI on the floor of the PICK-UP, then climb in and sit on the sides. Some of the women also climb in and squeeze into the cramped space.

The women are still crying and the men talk in gruff voices.

The DRIVER closes the tailgate, then leads JUMA to the cab and lifts him in. RUTH and PATIENCE sit beside him.

There is a plastic dog with a nodding head on the dashboard.

The DRIVER lights another cigarette, climbs into the cab and starts the engine.

JUMA

Please, bwana, what is the dog’s name?

The DRIVER ignores the question, puts the pick-up in gear and sets off.

The crowd moves back and people call out words of sympathy. Some wave. Others wipe away tears.

JUMA waves back, then settles against RUTH. He watches the nodding dog and falls asleep.

108 INT. DRIVING IN THE PICK-UP. DAY. (JUMA’S POV)

SOUNDS: a bang. A squeal of brakes. DRIVER shouts. Screams from the passengers.

The PICK-UP veers off the road, bumps and bounces down a slope and stops.

JUMA wakes and stares at thick bushes.

JUMA

What is it, Mama?

RUTH

The car has had an accident.

PATIENCE

Will we still go to Nyeri?

RUTH

I don’t know, my child. Only God knows.

The nodding dog lies on the floor with its head off. JUMA picks up the pieces and scrambles out after RUTH and PATIENCE.

One of the men has fallen out of the back of the pick-up and lies on the ground moaning, his head bleeding. KAMAU helps him to the shade of a tree where RUTH and the women tend him.

The DRIVER sits on a rock and lights another cigarette.

The men study the remains of a tyre and suck their teeth.

JUMA inspects the tyre and tries to suck his teeth.

KAMAU and the DRIVER lift NJOKI out and lay her on the ground. Her feet stick out under the blanket. Ash from the DRIVER’S cigarette falls on them. KAMAU covers the feet.

The DRIVER pulls out a spare wheel and some tools from the pick-up. He and KAMAU peer underneath.

KAMAU goes into the bush with a machete and returns with a long branch. He then organises the other men to collect rocks.

JUMA puts down the pieces of the nodding dog and goes to help. He lifts a rock and a SCORPION scuttles out. JUMA jumps back. One of the men stamps on the scorpion. JUMA is sorry for the scorpion and doesn’t help with any more rocks.

JUMA stands back as the men push rocks into place, lever up the vehicle with the branch, prop more rocks underneath, fit the spare wheel, and settle the vehicle back on the ground.

The women clap and JUMA joins in. The men grin and wipe sweaty faces with dusty hands. They return the useless wheel and the tools to the pick-up and lift NJOKI in.

KAMAU adjusts the blanket over her feet.

Two children, herding goats, appear from the bush and stand staring and pointing.

JUMA picks up the nodding dog and stares back.

KAMAU calls everyone to help with the pick-up.

EVERYONE

(shouting)

Harambee! (translates as: “All together.”)

They push the vehicle up the slope back onto the road.

KAMAU and the DRIVER help the man with the bleeding head to the back of the pick-up and he lies on the floor beside NJOKI.

Everyone else scrambles back in.

The children with the goats, wave as the vehicle leaves. JUMA waves back.

The DRIVER notices JUMA holding the nodding dog.

DRIVER

That one is called Nelson. As it’s broken you can keep it.

JUMA nods his thanks.

The DRIVER moves off.

At the end of the morning, they reached the outskirts of the town of NYERI. RUTH tells the driver to stop at a workshop beside the road where men are making wooden chairs and tables.

Everyone gets out.

RUTH and KAMAU speak to one of the men; he fetches a long box and puts it down beside the pick-up and removes the lid.

KAMAU and another man put NJOKI inside but the box is too short and her feet stick out.

The man fetches a bigger box which is the right size. They put NJOKI inside then place the box on the floor of the pick-up beside the man with the bad head.

Everyone gets back in and, because there isn’t much room, some people have to sit on the box.

The DRIVER moves off.

109 EXT. BURIAL SITE. DAY. (JUMA’S POV)

RUTH directs the DRIVER along winding tracks.

MONTAGE of hilly landscape with grass-roofed huts, smallholdings growing maize and beans, and rearing cattle, sheep and goats.

They come to a hut where many people are waiting. The men wear jackets which don’t match their trousers. Most of the women are crying. There are no other children.

Two men are digging a hole under a FLAMBOYANT TREE with bright orange flowers. Some of the flowers have fallen on the ground.

A MAN in a long black dress watches the men digging. The MAN isn’t wearing socks and one of his shoes doesn’t have a lace. He comes to RUTH and says he is very sorry.

JUMA cringes as the MAN pats him on the head. The MAN admires NELSON.

JUMA

(to Patience)

Why is that man wearing a dress?

PATIENCE

He is a priest. He will help Bibi go to heaven.

JUMA

Where’s that?

Before she can answer, an old man comes and pats JUMA’S head.

GRANDFATHER

I am your grandfather but you probably don’t remember me.

JUMA

Yes, I don’t remember.

JUMA shows him NELSON, but the GRANDFATHER isn’t interested.

RUTH

Come, Juma.

RUTH leads JUMA and PATIENCE to the side of the hole. They hold hands.

JUMA notices a beetle trying to climb out.

KAMAU and another man lower the coffin into the hole.

The PRIEST says lots of words in a loud voice, then picks up some earth and throws it at the coffin.

RUTH

We have to say goodbye to Bibi.

She and PATIENCE bow their heads; then throw some earth at the coffin.

JUMA picks up an orange flower and throws that.

Other people come and throw in more earth and cry.

Two men fill the hole with earth and cover the coffin.

Afterwards, everyone sits on the ground, and RUTH and an OLD LADY give them cups of tea.

PATIENCE

That old lady is also a wife, because our grandfather had two wives.

JUMA

Does Mama have two mothers?

KAMAU comes and sits with JUMA and PATIENCE.

KAMAU

This is a sad day.

JUMA nods. He shows NELSON to KAMAU, who finds a piece of thread and fixes the head back on.

KAMAU

I’m afraid it doesn’t nod.

JUMA

I don’t mind.

The DRIVER of the pick-up unties the red ribbons from the wing mirrors. He then gets in and starts the engine.

People start climbing into the pick-up, including the man with the bad head who is feeling better.

Other people come and pat JUMA on the head and say sorry.

Juma’s GRANDFATHER comes over to JUMA.

GRANDFATHER

Thank you for coming. Go in peace.

JUMA

Yes.

JUMA climbs into the cab before the GRANDFATHER can pat his head again.