Nyasha - It simply means grace

OmU 21 min. Germany/South Africa 2024

In the film, viewers accompany the protagonist Nyasha - this Shona name can be translated as grace, charm or gracefulness - on her journeys and at various stations in the border town of Musina on a normal day. In moving scenes, she talks about her life between the hopeless past in her home country of Zimbabwe and her dream of running a beauty parlour in the future. One of the stops along the way is a meeting with friends who are taking part in a hair and wig braiding course with her. Another stop is a meeting with her neighbours outside her temporary accommodation.
There are around 1 million refugees in South Africa from the neighbouring country of Zimbabwe alone. They are fleeing unemployment, hunger and politically motivated violence and often enter South Africa around the border town of Musina. In South Africa, however, hardly anyone is welcomed with open arms - with 60% of young people unemployed, many people see anyone who immigrates as a potential competitor. There is hardly any state aid and access to state education and healthcare facilities is often made difficult for people who have arrived from neighbouring countries. Refugees and migrants are therefore left to fend for themselves and have to use their perseverance and creativity to find a niche that can provide them with an income, albeit a very meagre one. In this context, the Lutheran Community Outreach Foundation's project offers important support with a wealth of measures from its office in the border town of Musina.
With the help of strong images and the impressive protagonist Nyasha, the filmmakers manage to convey the global issue of flight and migration in an approachable way without the clichés or victimisation schemes often used in this context and to portray the refugees as what they are: our fellow human beings - in precarious circumstances.

Background to the project

The Lutheran Community Outreach Foundation (LCOF), a foundation of two partner churches of the Ev.-luth. Mission in Lower Saxony in South Africa, began its work in the city centre of Johannesburg several decades ago. An increasing number of refugees and migrants from many African countries moved there, and in recent years the LCOF has specialised in supporting this often marginalised and particularly vulnerable population group. The measures include trauma counselling, legal support in clarifying residence status, courses to teach skills that can enable a small income, English courses, placement of children from this context in local schools and hospitals, etc. Based on this experience, the LCOF has become a leading NGO in South Africa in this field and has opened local representative offices in Pretoria and Musina. In addition, it has established a network of various state institutions and NGOs as well as organisations representing the interests of various migrant groups in order to act as effectively and participatively as possible.