Anonymous – Paɣiba Salma | Women’s Gold Review

Title of documentary: Paɣiba Salma | Women’s Gold

Director(s): Eza J. Doortmont
Year of production: 2020
Length (duration): 18:20

Keywords: Women; Ghana; Process; Sensorial; Shea
Link to watch the film: https://boap.uib.no/index.php/jaf/article/view/2908/2965

The opening scenes of the film depict an early morning, time-stamped to be 5:48am in Tamale, Northern Ghana. This immediately situates the time and space of where this 18 minute and twenty second ethnographic film is taking place. The viewer then begins to follow the chronological continuity of the shea butter creation practice, through a clearly outlined eleven step process, which the viewer sees in its entirety over the course of a day in the film, clearly indicating each step with text on the screen. The final scenes depict a night time setting, and a closing of day, also signifying the closing of the film. However, throughout the course of the film and the eleven-step process, the filmmaker takes the viewer through an additional market setting, and what feels like multiple days’ worth of clippings, and scenes. The filmmaker himself does not make his presence explicitly known, or heard, but he does make it known and acknowledged in self-conscious subtleties. The viewer sees this with numerous clips, where the viewer will see young children directly engage with the camera or smile, because they know they are being filmed. In other parts of the film the viewer gets the sense the woman in view might be interacting directly with the cameraman, but it is difficult to tell for certain to whom she is speaking, because it then immediately jumps to the next scene. The children, however, are knowing reminders sprinkled throughout the film of the filmmaker’s constant presence behind the scenes, which brings a certain sense of self-awareness to the film.

The whole experience of watching is extremely sensorial, with many jump cuts to images which elicit a strong physical response. Throughout the many steps of the process, the shea nuts undergo extreme levels of physical transformation, into varying textures, and the filmmaker presents images which make the different consistencies quite visceral. The entire creation process of the shea butter has a meditative, and ceremonial aspect to it. This is seen through opening references to such in the introduction of the film, as well as through the deliberate and tactful way that the filmmaker depicted men, in the only short clip of the film they were ever explicitly featured in the film. Aside from the young boys who are featured alongside their mothers, the film is strictly focused on women. The only shot of men that we see throughout the course of the film is extremely brief, and features a group of men all gathered together, and looking to be engaging in some form of a religious prayer. I am assuming this was done by the filmmaker very deliberately, to highlight the almost spiritual role this community of women play in one another’s life. This is effective at capturing the significance the process and creation of shea butter has on these women, and on their lives. The viewer sees this too through the interview with one woman describing the benefit this industry has brought to her, where she

accredits working with these women to making her a better housewife and mother to her kids. The viewer also hears the same woman describing the benefits of financial independence, and the pressure it has taken off her marriage, not needing to ask her husband if she wants to buy anything. The strong sense of community is depicted both explicitly and implicitly throughout the course of the entire film. One of the most remarkable aspects of the film was the ease and experience which these women emulate through their work. The film showcases one woman turn a crank to roast the shea nuts over a hot open fire with one arm, while holding and wrangling her squirming child in the other. The film also shows another woman breastfeeding, while she is simultaneously kneading the shea nuts to make the butter. Children are shown of both genders and all ages helping their mothers with their work, or just simply hanging around at all times. The constant presence of children shows just how strongly this is a traditionally all-female workplace. It is not until the very end that the film remarks on the fact that if men begin to invade this traditionally all women workplace, due the fact it has now become so profitable, they will begin to lose all the independence and autonomy they have gained through this practice.

Doortmont, E. (2020). Paɣiba Salma | Women’s Gold. Journal of Anthropological Films, 4(01). https://doi.org/10.15845/jaf.v4i01.2908