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Michelle Lemuya Ikeny: Kenyan actress takes on child marriage in Nawi

Updated: Jan 31, 2025

Michelle Lemuya Ikeny stars in Nawi, a film that depicts the reality of child marriage in rural Kenya.

British Broadcasting CorporationWatch LiveHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureArtsTravelEarthVideoLiveHomeNewsIsrael-Gaza WarWar in UkraineUS & CanadaUKUK PoliticsEnglandN. IrelandN. Ireland PoliticsScotlandScotland PoliticsWalesWales PoliticsAfricaAsiaChinaIndiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastIn PicturesBBC InDepthBBC VerifySportBusinessExecutive LoungeTechnology of BusinessFuture of BusinessInnovationTechnologyScience & HealthArtificial IntelligenceAI v the MindCultureFilm & TVMusicArt & DesignStyleBooksEntertainment NewsArtsArts in MotionTravelDestinationsAfricaAntarcticaAsiaAustralia and PacificCaribbean & BermudaCentral AmericaEuropeMiddle EastNorth AmericaSouth AmericaWorld’s TableCulture & ExperiencesAdventuresThe SpeciaListEarthNatural WondersWeather & ScienceClimate SolutionsSustainable BusinessGreen LivingVideoLiveLive NewsLive SportHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureArtsTravelEarthVideoLiveAudioWeatherNewslettersTeenage actress takes on child marriage in role mirroring real life12 hours agoCatherine HeathwoodBBC NewsFILMCREWThe 15-year-old star of a film about a schoolgirl forced to marry an older man is evangelical about her role - despite the fact that her community in north-western Kenya might see it as a betrayal and treat her as an outcast.

"I want the movie to spark conversations about this topic, because it's really not something people want to talk about," Michelle Lemuya Ikeny tells the BBC.

She plays 13-year-old Nawi, the eponymous heroine of the coming-of-age film set in Turkana county, a rural area which borders Uganda and where the UN says one in four girls are married before they are 18.

"So many of my friends have had to leave school, or never been to school because someone paid a dowry to marry them, so their fathers had married them off," she says.

Michelle, who grew up in Turkana where the film was shot, kept these girls in mind when portraying Nawi's emotions - a performance that won her an Africa Movie Academy Award for best promising actor last November.

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Category: Global News
Year: 2003
Condition: Excellent

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