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'Black Women and Sex' follows three women: Zambian Iris Kaingu, South African Glow Makatsi and Nigerian chef Olawumi Oloye.
South African filmmaker Godisamang Khunou at the American Black Film Festival. Picture: g_khunou/Instagram
South African filmmaker Godisamang Khunou’s documentary, Black Women and Sex, won the Best Documentary Feature at the recent American Black Film Festival (ABFF).
By nature, sex is liberating, but most black women’s experience of the intimate act isn’t of freedom, but instead bondage.
Speaking to The Citizen, Khunou said she was inspired to tell the story after meeting a filmmaker from Ghana in 2015 who had done a film about female genital mutilation.
“I had never heard of it at that point and it stayed with me for months and years after that because it is a violation of h uman rights, until I decided to write this film to find out to find out about the many politics involved for African women and sex,” Khunou told The Citizen.
Founded in 1997, the ABFF is dedicated to showcasing film and television content by and about people of African descent. Now in its 29th year, the ABFF was held from June 11 to the 15th in Miami Beach.
Validating win
Black Women and Sex follows three women; Zambian media personality Iris Kaingu who was incarnated after her sex tape was leaked, South African gender equality activist and transwoman Glow Makatsi and Nigerian chef Olawumi Oloye.
It took about six years to make the documentary, and Khunou said she became worried during the process because the film had already won awards for its development.
“…in the process I was winning a lot of awards too for development, and I worried that the film wouldn’t live up to the hype in the making of it, so it was very validating that I delivered what I had promised in those years when it won as a complete project at ABFF,” she said.
Khunou said she had planned to attend the festival with Kaingu but couldn’t after failing to find a US visa appointment in time for the festival.
“We tried everything between her resources and networks and mine, but in the end it didn’t work out. I know many other South African filmmakers who were a part of the South African showcase at the American Black Film Festival this year who also couldn’t make it because of difficulties with their visas,” said Khunou.
Despite the main characters of the doccie being absent, “all three women celebrated with us on social media, and that was lovely,” shared Khunou.
South Africans at ABFF
Black Women and Sex premiered at the ABFF, and Khunou said it will show in South Africa at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda later this month.
“The film will be screening at the National Arts Festival in Makanda, in the Eastern Cape, very soon, from the 26th of June 2025 to the 6th of July 2025 through the Fringe Programme, and I can’t wait to share it with audiences here at home,” she said.
Khunou attended the festival with the help of the Gauteng Film Commission.
Other South African filmmakers and their films were present at the festival through a partnership between the ABFF and Art in Black Foundation.
Through this partnership, the South African Collective was presented. The South African Collective was a curatorial art exhibition spotlighting five dynamic visual artists from South Africa.
The artists are Steve Maphoso, Thabiso Dakamela, Assan Taylor, Siyabonga Mlambi and Ayanda Moyo.
“This exhibition is an exciting step forward in ABFF’s mission to uplift global Black creatives,” said ABFF founder Jeff Friday.
“We are proud to provide a platform where African art and cinematic storytelling can exist in conversation, inspiring deeper cultural connection.”
The idea for this collaboration was born during an immersive art tour through South Africa led by curator Allana Foster Finley of Cur8Africa and Friday.
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