On Becoming a Guinea Fowl 2025

On the drive home from a party, Shula discovers Uncle Fred dead in the road near a brothel, and has a brief vision of herself as a young girl. She calls Shula’s Father, who tells her to stay near the body until the police come in the morning, and also asks her for money. Her cousin Nsansa, who is drunk, also happens across the body, but Shula is reluctant to let her into her car.

The next day she goes home to rest, but her relatives come to empty out the house in preparation for the funeral. She is harangued by her aunties for washing on a funeral day and pressured to pick up Shula’s Mother from the airport.

As the funeral goes on, Shula becomes increasingly distressed by the hostility toward Fred’s widow. She is forbidden from bringing the widow food, as Fred’s family believes that he died because she did not take proper care of him. Shula and Nsansa go to Bupe, their cousin, who is staying at a college dorm. On the way, Nsansa recollects how Fred attempted to abuse her but couldn’t get an erection; she says she hit him and made him run away. They arrive at the dorm and find Bupe has taken an overdose.

Bupe is hospitalised, and Shula finds a confession on her phone saying that Fred had been serially abusing her. Bupe’s mother says to keep quiet about Fred’s behaviour. Shula struggles to sleep as she remembers an educational children’s TV show that talked about the guinea fowl.

The next day, Shula is sent to dictate an obituary, but she is haunted by Bupe’s confession. She returns home and is shocked to find that Bupe has discharged herself and is now making food for the family. Bupe shrugs off the confession, saying that Fred is dead and it’s in the past. Shula tries to find Bupe’s mother, but is waylaid by various men demanding her to serve them food. She finds Bupe has overdosed again and is taken to the hospital. Back at the house, Nsansa admits that her story was a lie — Fred did actually abuse her. Shula goes for a walk and talks to Fred’s widow. The widow says that she cannot charge her cellphone because it’s an old model with a rare cable, and she left it at Fred’s home.

The following morning, Shula goes to retrieve the cable, and meets Fred’s seven children, who are being looked after by their maternal grandmother. Shula realises from the children’s ages that Fred’s widow was only 11 or 12 when she first got pregnant. When the grandmother learns that Shula is on Fred’s side of the family, she falls to her knees and begs Shula to tell them not to take the house from Fred’s widow, as they have nowhere to raise the children.

Shula goes to her father, who is having a party. She asks him why nobody is speaking up about Fred, but he is unconcerned, and says since he is dead there is no point. He asks her for more money. As she walks away, a thought occurs to him — he calls her cellphone and asks if Fred abused her. She says he did not. She goes to her mother and asks why she told all of Shula’s aunties about the abuse, but not her dad. Her mother says that the aunties talked to Fred and he assured them he wouldn’t do it again. Her mother, seemingly unbothered by any of this, tells her to gather more food for the funeral dinner.

Shula is drinking in the kitchen cupboard with Nsansa when the aunties step in and assure her that they love her and they do not want harm to come to her. Outside, the widow and her family have been made to sleep in the empty swimming pool. Nsansa mentions Shula watching a children’s TV show about guinea fowl one day while holding a hot water bottle to her belly. Nsansa says that was the day Shula decided she hated Uncle Fred. She asks if Shula is all right, and Shula just nods. Shula and Nsansa go to Bupe’s hospital window, climb in and hug her to sleep.

Shula remembers watching the TV show about the guinea fowl. In it, the host explains that the guinea fowl is very important in protecting the other animals, because it makes a loud noise when predators are near.

At the house, the men of the family hold a court in which Fred’s relatives tell the widow that she failed him. The widow says she tried to stop him drinking after he was hospitalised, but he didn’t listen to her. The men decide that her family should pay a sum of money and give up the house and Fred’s possessions. The family members begin to fight over ownership of the items. Outside, Shula arrives with Fred’s children and begins to screech the sound of a guinea fowl.