Peter Biella, director. The Chairman and the Lions.2012. 46 minutes. Maa and Swahili, with English subtitles. Tanzania. Documentary Educational Resources. $19.95.

Abstract

DOCUMENTARIESPeter Biella, director. Chairman and the Lions. 2012. 46 minutes. Maa and Swahili, with English subtitles. Tanzania. Documentary Educational Resources. $ 19.95.Men don't know much about lions anymore or how to kill them, laments a Maasai elder in Chairman and the Lions. documentary, directed by Peter Biella, an anthropology professor at San Francisco State University, finds inspiration in the research of its producer, Kelly Askew, a fellow anthropology professor at the University of Michigan. It follows the trajectory of Askew's article Of Land and Legitimacy: A Tale of Two Lawsuits (co-authored with Faustin Maganga and Rie Odgaard; Africa 83 [1], 2013), which examines poverty, property rights, and land conflicts in the Lesoit village. It also reflects, to a lesser extent, Askew and Odgaard's The Lions of Lesoit: Shifting Frames of Parakyo Maasai Indigeneity (in Politics of Identity: Emerging Indigeneity, edited by Michelle Harris, Martin Nakata, and Bronwyn Carlson, UTS ePress, 2013), an exploration of song and ritual among the Maasai. Chairman and the Lions has already received numerous accolades, most notably the 2013 Jury Award at the Zanzibar International Film Festival and the 2013 First Prize at the ETNO Film Festival for Ethnographic and Anthropological Film, and it was screened at a number of other prestigious film festivals.Framed by the training of young Maasai warriors in the technique of lion hunting, the film gives voice to Frank Kaipai Ikoyo, who, at thirty-three, is the chairman of the Tanzanian village of Lesoit. He was elected at the unusually young age of twenty-six, due to his completion of primary school; however, his nuanced understanding of the nation-state, paired with his appreciation for community processes, has made him successful in combating both the real and figurative lions that plague his people, including land grabbers, bush lawyers, unemployment, outmigration, and poverty. Within the confines of the film, Ikoyo faces land disputes over village property and an exploitative legal contract, along with the arduous job of persuading mothers to send their daughters to school.Reflecting these subnarratives, Chairman and the Lions is most successful in its deconstruction of the dichotomy between traditionalism and modernism. Indeed, the film convincingly demonstrates that these factors coexist in compelling and often contradictory ways. For instance, Ikoyo's voice-over contextualizes the Maasai as a migrant people, and their permanent housing as a new development enforced by the national government. As encroaching farmers attempt to steal their land, however, the ensuing lawsuit calls into question the validity of Lesoit as a village. …