"What if it is God's will for me not to have a child?" is a painful question that underscores Nafsi's intertwining themes of religion, motherhood, and the trauma of womanhood. Released in 2021, the Kenyan film follows a falling out between two female best friends, Aisha (played by Mumbi Maina) and Shiko (played by Catherine Kamau), after a surrogacy arrangement goes awry. The conditions that surround the two women's conflict speak to a wider gap in knowledge regarding surrogacy rights in Kenya.
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In very few known cases, parties involve a surrogate mother to help achieve their dream of having a family. As much as it looks like a modern issue, surrogacy is as old as our ancestors. In Kamba culture, infertile women were known to marry wives for their husbands so as to continue the family name. All the power was given to the woman in question as she chose the woman for her husband - someone she could trust, a friend. Such was the seriousness of the setup that the woman marrying was referred to as the "female husband". Any children born from this kind of arrangement would be considered hers even though she was not the biological mother. To cement this arrangement, the infertile woman would pay a dowry for the surrogate, legally binding her to the union as per Kamba customary law. It was a contract that could be dissolved via divorce just like in any other marriage.
After a traumatic childhood experience of sexual assault leaves Aisha unable to conceive, Shiko steps in for her best friend and offers to carry a child for her, declaring, "I want you to know that your pain is my pain and your life my life." Yet a formal contract detailing the full terms of the arrangement is clearly lacking in Nafsi, banking on friendship alone for a favourable outcome. As fate would have it, Aisha finally gets pregnant and insists on Shiko aborting the baby, to which she refuses. In an even more twisted state of affairs, Aisha's pregnancy does not carry to full term, with the grieving mother-to-be attempting to steal the surrogacy child post-delivery. This desperate attempt to achieve the dream of motherhood transforms Aisha from protagonist to antagonist, launching a sustained campaign against her former best friend, for which Shiko is compelled to respond as a means of preservation for herself and the baby.
Religion plays a further role in shaping moral attitudes towards the setup, with Shiko's husband denouncing her as "a whore”, believing the pregnancy is the product of cheating rather than an act of kindness towards a former friend.
Ambiguity shrouds the circumstances displayed in Nafsi, which differs from Kamba customs in which the surrogate had the freedom to request "release" from her duty and remarry elsewhere once the job was done. This contrast between artistic modernity and historic reality highlights the complexity of contemporary motherhood against the backdrop of ever-more sought surrogacy, with Nafsi's discontented ending reflecting the real-life circumstances of many in Kenya.
A research report by Global Market Insights Inc predicts that the global surrogacy market will surpass $27.5 billion by 2025. This is based on the rising number of people suffering from reproductive health issues, including infertility. Other situations that one may look to surrogacy involve single parenthood, same-sex relationships, past trauma, and personal decisions hinging on lifestyle or career advancement.
Kenya is one such country that has embraced this method, albeit in a vast legal lacuna. There are no laws against surrogacy, but likewise, no regulations to govern it. This grey area has given rise to illegal commercial surrogacy, infringing human — more specifically female — rights in the process. Surrogate mothers have been forced to abort in cases where the commissioning parent(s) is no longer interested in the baby. In dire situations, a surrogate is stuck with a baby they did not plan for. Many of these cases would be avoidable if there were clear laws pertaining to all the parties involved; the surrogate, the commissioning parents, and the child. As an extension, Kenya needs to rethink legislation that bans LGBTQ+ couples from obtaining a child via surrogacy, though this can only be done by first lifting the ban on homosexuality in Kenya. However, this does not take away the fact that surrogacy is a womens' rights issue, meaning the well-being of the woman should be centred in all discussion. Pregnancy is a highly personal journey and, at most times, risky. This is especially true in surrogacy pregnancies due to the use of hormones in egg donation and the general sense of urgency applied.
Surrogacy is an arrangement in which a woman (the surrogate) agrees to carry and give birth to a child on behalf of another person or couple (the intended parent/s). Surrogacy can be gestational or traditional. Gestational surrogacy, also known as commercial surrogacy, makes use of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and other technological advancements such as egg and sperm donation. Traditional surrogacy is when the surrogate mother is artificially inseminated with the sperm of the intended father, sperm donor in this case, which means she's the biological mother. In most cases, however, traditional surrogacy blurs with altruistic surrogacy. With the latter, the surrogate mother is usually a relative or friend to the intended parent(s), and there's usually no or very little monetary compensation involved. The biggest catch in this kind of system is the emotional rollercoaster involved over the pregnancy period and post-birth, leading to unintentionally forced relationships among parties involved and a breach of consent.
"Many of these surrogate mothers are socioeconomically vulnerable women who are trying to escape poverty"
Coinciding with this phenomenon, and perhaps even in response, is the rise of commercial surrogacy. Over the years, the popularity of the industry has boomed in Kenya, thanks to prices being a fraction of what is charged in the West. It's a lucrative business; fertility clinics mostly operate with agents who act as the missing link between the surrogates and the intended parents. Operating in a legal and regulatory void, the practice is now hitting black market standards, as babies get stolen and surrogate mothers kidnapped in the absence of legally binding contracts between the involved parties.
Many of these surrogate mothers are socioeconomically vulnerable women who are trying to escape poverty. Agents exploit these women by promising (relatively) big money during the process and post-delivery. But unfortunately, many of these contracts are just verbal, putting the surrogates in a complex situation as they do not have any bargaining power in case the deal goes sour. Other agents solicit more from the commissioning parents but pay way less to the surrogate in terms hidden in shady contracts that the surrogates are often coerced to sign. Last year, The Elephant reported on the case of a surrogate mother named Monica, who was forced into a late-term abortion after the intended parent changed his mind. Stranded in a foreign country with no familiar contact and no formal contract to back her up, she endured all the physical and emotional trauma on her own. Moreover, she only received 300,000 Kenyan shillings (c. £2000), as opposed to the 1.5million shillings (c. £6666) she claims to have been offered.
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Nafsi offers an emotive insight into this increasingly popular national experience, dramatising just one of its many pitfalls. However, the situation, even in a contemporary context, can still bring mutuals benefit to all parties involved, as expressed in an interview with two-time Kenyan surrogate Winnie Maina. "I'm helping somebody who needs the help. In return, they help me", she summarises. Therefore, rather than a definitive allegory of the surrogate experience, Nafsi details just one of many routes an arrangement can go. Accordingly, films like Nafsi serve to bring to public attention the need for more legal frameworks and safety nets for surrogate mothers. Speaking on Nafsi, Reuben Odanga, the film's director, says, "I hope that conversations will begin at the end of the film." As it stands, South Africa is the only African country to provide this, with altruistic surrogacy being regulated by chapter 19 of the Children's Act 38 of 2005 (commercial surrogacy is still illegal). Could Kenya be the second?