Film explores domestic abuse among women of African origin
Christiane Zanou thought she could handle it. Zanou, her husband and their three children had left West Africa for what she believed would be a better life in Montreal.
It wasn't. Tough enough to adjust to a place where colour can always be an issue, but tougher still when her husband finds it difficult to adjust to a society where the male dominant culture he left behind is not the norm here.
As a consequence, Zanou underwent harrowing periods of violence before deciding she had to take her life and those of her kids into her own hands if she were to survive.
Zanou's story, as well as several other women from Togo and the Ivory Coast, is the focus of Togoborn director Gentille M. Assih's poignant National Film Board of Canada documentary Into the Light. But the focus here is not on despair; rather this is a liberating story of hope and affirmation. It's no accident the film — available for free on the NFB streaming platform — was released just prior to Black History Month.
“There were alarm bells going off, but I was ignoring them,” the Togo-born Zanou reveals in the doc. She was at her wit's end trying to balance two cultures, but it was proving futile.
“It's a different playing field here,” Zanou adds. “We all have to adapt.”
He couldn't. So after enduring one too many beatings and resulting medical treatments, she took the bold step of giving her husband the boot — despite being told she had brought “shame” onto her family. But rather than submit to taunts and threats, Zanou sought and received help from support groups in her community.
“These women arrive here with dreams they will start a new life,” director/writer Assih says in an interview. “But they soon see life can get much more complex, both at home and outside where the whole family must deal with issues of racism like never before.”
Assih can easily relate to her subjects. She arrived here from Togo in 2009 and has a first-hand view of the differing cultural landscapes.
“In African culture, men had always been so accustomed to being authoritarian,” says Assih, who made two documentaries prior to earning her master's degree in film from UQAM in 2013. “Women, traditionally, didn't really have their place and had no authority. But that's changing more and more there, since the generation of my mother, with women becoming more educated and working.
“And when these women come here and see how other women have become more integrated and have achieved more equality, it changes the dynamic. They are prepared to start their lives all over again, but that also creates an atmosphere of stress for the family, because the husband is no longer the sole money-earner who runs the show and he can't always accept this new life.”
The reality is that two incomes become much more necessary when here. And when the husband is laid off work, as is sometimes the case, the wife's salary becomes all the more integral to keeping the bills paid and the family together.
“This leads to a lot of frustration for the husband who seeks to establish control and assume his role of authority, but this too often ends in a cycle of violence,” Assih says.
“Unfortunately, too many women put up with this out of fear of breaking up their families and then endure much abuse. It becomes part of their daily lives. But the good news now is there is community help where there was none before.”
What Assih found shocking about Zanou's situation is that she had no inkling at first of what kind of hell she had been living. The two, who had arrived in Montreal around the same time, had been friendly and in frequent contact. Their husbands were cousins.
“We were very close. Our kids played together. Yet I had no idea what (Zanou) was going through,” Assih says. “She had always been such a cheerful woman, but then she became really quiet. I didn't understand at first, but then she began to open up about the conjugal violence she was experiencing. That was her first step. It's so important to talk about this.”
And Zanou was far from alone in their community.
“But the point is so many have since been able to find help and get their lives back together,” Assih adds. “The film's message is much more about women overcoming and surviving. It's about hope.”
Into the Light can be streamed for free at nfb.ca/film/into-thelight/.
Women, traditionally, didn't really have their place and had no authority. But that's changing more and more.