Godisamang Khunou’s “Black Women and Sex” Frames How African Women Navigate Sex and Sexuality

The world is enthusiastic about defining and dictating women’s, African women especially, relationship with their sex life and sexuality. In Godisamang Khunou’s directorial documentary debut, Black Women and Sex, we get invited to witness the individual story of three African women and how they navigate their relationship with sex and sexuality. 

The film’s plot travels across South Africa, Nigeria and Zambia by spotlighting the daily realities of three African women’s relationship with sex and sexuality. Glow, a transgender model in South Africa, expresses and fights for her right to exist in a body that carries her truth and relationship with self. Olawunmi, a Christian and newlywed Nigerian bride, is intentional about building a loving and peaceful relationship with her husband and son while addressing her polygamous past. Iris, a philanthropist from Zambia, is reclaiming her sexuality through cultural rituals after a decade-old scandal. 

Black Women and Sex has screened at at the 29th American Black Film Festival where it won Best Documentary Feature and scheduled to screen at the Feature Documentary section of the Women Of The Lens Film Festival in November 2025, followed by a screening at The African Diaspora International Film Festival in New York in December. Also, the documentary screenings will be screening across the continent. 

In Culture Custodian’s interview with the film director, she talks about sexual representation of African women in mainstream media, cultural practices around sex and sexuality, stigma and shame associated with sex and sexuality, African feminism and Political Violence, her next feature documentary. 

This interview has been edited for clarity. 

The documentary portrayed the Zambian’ coming-of-age’ school. Why was it important to visit that cultural site?

These cultural practices exist outside Zambia but across the continent. It’s an African cultural practice. The reason we went there and with Iris is because she’s on a journey of reclaiming and celebrating her sexuality despite the slutshaming she has been exposed to over the years. I felt it was a good practice to have for women because the coming of age school teaches sex. I understand your reservation that the school reinforces the idea of patriarchy and male centeredness. But what I holistically saw are images of these African women being sexual and having the right to be sexual. It creates a sense of community, womanhood and seeing sex without stigma as opposed to what is represented in mainstream media. Also, I found it empowering. There are progressive and harmful traditions. And, in contemporary societies, we are at liberty to pick and choose what aspects of our culture and traditions to practice. 

Your career is marked with the intention of championing African women stories from varying lenses. As a woman and filmmaker, what do you find helpful and important in the female-conscious narratives you and others tell?

I find it as an opportunity to show and recognise the contributions of women to society. Men’s contributions to society and the world have been written throughout history. And, as a storyteller, I wanted to particularly show some of the useful perspectives and contributions from a female gaze. There’s something called African feminism, Black feminism which gets translated to Black American feminism and doesn’t represent African culture and worldview. Also, the intention is to look at this African feminism that our mothers and grandmothers espouse and see how it can be a space of discussion for any African who wants to be a feminist. Feminism is part of African culture which I believe is progressive in many ways. African culture and worldview often gets misrepresented and ignored in some cases. 

What are your thoughts about the erasure of African worldview and contribution within the context of the global feminist movement?

The contribution of African women hasn’t been documented a lot. There’s a lot of work to be done in regards to sensitizing Africans about the contribution of African effort and victory. There’s been a considerable effort to ensure Africans forget their history and identity and change their perception of self. This was a very important part of the colonial system to ensure erasure of identity and self. We need to go back to the preservation of our heritage and culture. We are doomed if we don’t acknowledge and document it. 

The film adopts a vulnerable and intimate approach toward presenting Iris, Glow and Olawunmi’s stories. What guided this narrative and directorial choice? 

I wanted the documentary to have the feel of a private conversation. I wanted the audience to feel like they are being led into a room that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to. That’s why all the stories felt personal. 

You rarely see African women’s sexual realities portrayed onscreen and what it gets featured often has a male gaze framing. What are your thoughts about this erasure and unflattering representation?

I was worried about not replicating a harmful representation of women’s sexuality. There has been so much damage done to the representation of African women’s sexuality onscreen and in academia. When developing the documentary, my research led me to see how African girls, as early as age five, are seen as being less innocent. If something is committed by a five year old African girl, there’s less uproar in contrast with a White girl of the same age. The African girl isn’t considered more of a child than her white mate. This is why this sexual representation is important and  needs to be approached carefully because of the messaging and social acceptance it further creates. Bearing this in mind, I was very careful about the sexual representation. I didn’t want to make an exploitative documentary. 

What connected Iris, Glow and Olawunmi’s stories is the community they have. What are your thoughts on female friendship, sisterhood and community within the context of self identity, vulnerability and sex? 

I love and advocate for the importance of community. We have grown into singular-minded people and lost the act of community. This has made us place enormous emphasis on romantic partners and shun community. Community is about getting a lot of things from different people.  It’s a healthy and African way to live. African societies value communal bonds. We need to reclaim the importance of community. Religion has, over the years,  created a sort of protective community for people. And that’s also an African thing that I also wanted to represent and reclaim, you know, and reclaim as a society.

Religion and culture has played a huge role in building and fostering the African community. What are your thoughts on how women navigate their identity and sexuality while embracing religion and cultural identity unmindful of its harmful practices?

People have a right to decide for themselves who they are going to be. It’s very important that everyone wake up to the idea of being in control of their life and use that agency to decide on their belief systems. Obviously, there are human rights issues that we can fundamentally disagree on. But, who gets to decide what’s right or wrong?

The women’s personal choices differ. In that sense, the documentary plays like a balance of different women deciding who they are and going for it. That’s the common thread that often inspires me when I look at the stories of the women in the film. Olawunmi wants to be a housewife who supports her partner. Iris, after all she experienced, decides to run for a political office. Interestingly, she is a real contributor to society. Her philanthropic deeds didn’t get shown in the documentary but she’s someone deserving of a position to contribute meaningfully to society. There’s feminism within their decision. That decision to own their self and decision for me, is beautiful and freeing.

There were lots of troubling moments for me. How do you stay grounded and focused even when you have opposing views as a director?

We visited two traditional sexual training practices in Zambia but ended up using one. In both training houses, there’s a common understanding that sex is the backbone of any marriage and partnership. The one that gets featured in the documentary was a more physical traditional training. The other focused more on traditional medicine. It teaches women what to eat, drink and feed their partners. It also teaches them traditional medicines that can be given to their partners if they don’t want to have sex. 

That was the conflicting idea for me. For me, sex is synonymous with consent. Thus, drugging your partner for sex is unconsensual. Although I understand the cultural practice and its context, I was conflicted, as a filmmaker, to put that in the film. 

The film screened at American Black Film Festival and is scheduled for screening at Women Of The Lens Film Festival and The African Diaspora International Film Festival. These are Western spaces devoid of the cultural and social tension in Africa. How do you think the film would be received by these Western and diasporic audiences? And, do you think the African responses to the film would be any different?

We have screened the film in South Africa and have plans of showing it across different African regions. The conversations at home, like this interview, are much more challenging. There’s a level of resistance on the African continent compared to the diaspora. The international audience appreciates the film because it portrays cultures and realities they aren’t familiar with. They appreciate the preservation of culture and the telling of the story in that sense. But the culture and belief system being shown is familiar to the African audience. Unmindful of the responses, I don’t value one over the other because they are equally important. And the conversations they film keep motivating is why the film was made.

Iris mentioned a dual feeling about the reception of the documentary in Zambia. As a women-centered filmmaker, what are your thoughts about Iris’ reservation especially in relation to societal perception of her? And, how do you think this societal stigma and associated shame affects the telling of unfiltered and raw African women stories? 

Iris is definitely right about that. The Zambian audience might not get the essence of the film and its subjects but the international audience probably get the essence. The film might not be easily digestible to them due to the topic and issues that have been associated with Iris in the past. 

From a technical and financial point of view, we definitely need more money to make women-centric stories mainstream. We need more investment that can afford these stories to get populated in mainstream media. We need investment into our cultures, languages and heritages, not just female stories. I am inspired by what Korean filmmakers and others from different regions have been able to do with their stories and broken geographical barriers with their stories. All those were achieved by investment into their own stories. The availability of women-centric and cultural stories in  mainstream media for a wider audience might make the stories less shocking. 

Your next documentary feature, Political Violence is already in production. What can you say about it? 

Political Violence is about gender-based violence in South Africa. The film follows the story of Fezeghile Kuzayo who was called Khwezi for a long time and Nomsa Daneinu. Kuzayo had accused former President Jacob Zuma of sexually assaulting her years ago. Deneinu was kidnapped and raped by a local handyman for over a year. On one hand, the film is a case study about the culture and issues surrounding gender-based violence, especially where a powerful person is involved. On the other, it’s about how communities shield men and further expose women to violent realities. 

We are trying to explore the idea of gender-based violence not being a class issue by juxtaposition the story of a powerful and everyday man who are both accused of sexual violence and rape. Political Violence is looking at gender-based violence, the real stories of survivors and this bigger conversation around societal reaction to survivors and victims of gender-based violence.

We’ve been working very hard on Political Violence for years. Hopefully, when it comes out, which is soon, it will offer survivors support and that a community is available to them should they need it.