"Think quickly, tell him who your uncle is”, were the words being spoken by the other person that co-habits within me, the little voice that niggers and gnaws at me, only I can hear it, used intentionally, its called ‘intution’. I was awakened from my shot nap by an unfamiliar voice. Tucked nicely in the back of the military style SUV on the way to Kibera, One of Africa’s largest slums. Our first shoot day had been interrupted, the usual ‘askari’ ('police' in Kiswahili) nonsense of stopping people & obtaining a bribe had caught up to us. I heard our driver, with a trembling voice try to explain to the askari that he had not passed the red light, but had been waved to pass by his colleague. With three other women in the car, the knowledge that we were from London, although I was born in Kenya, Mzee (an elder in Swahili, what I referred the driver as) struggled with confidence, I could hear the terror in his voice as he tried to explain. Never have I been so proud to be in Kenya right now, but at the same time been so disappointed that I had to adopt the same tactics that I detest. The idea that you can drop some names based on your affiliation and get pardoned right then and there, is beyond my rose tinted view of how humans should behave. But, it worked, as soon as I mentioned "Fred Gumo is my uncle", the askari, suddenly listening, responded to me "what did you say?". I repeated & just like that, we were able to continue on our way. September 2018 was the year that I will never forget, the year that changed everything. Its was the beginning of my #decadeofreturn campaign - the year that I decided to create an all female filmmaking crew to empower marginalised voices. Film, with its immense power, has the ability to change minds, change law and change lives! I took a leap into the unknown after a Tedxeuston talk in September 2017 (Metarmorphisis), where Mustafa (Victims to Changemakers) so eloquently talked about his experience as a Kenyan Nubian and what he is doing for his community. Ever since then, the journey of meeting amazing creatives and humanitarians in their own right has been mind-blowing. Tribalism and ethnic affiliations drive social, political and economical life in Kenya, stretching back to the colonial era and Britain’s divide and rule policy. In 1963, at the time of independence, Kenya’s tribes were classified into 42 groups, excluding the Nubians, amongst others. There are long-standing issues with identity, citizenship, statelessness, marginalisation, and integration of minorities in Kenya, with Nubians being one of the most invisible groups. Perception without experience is so damaging, and this has never been more evident than my experience in Kibera. Looked upon as a dangerous place, a 'dirty place' with flying toilets and somewhere that has no heart, however, I witnessed a strong sense of community, children as young as three walking around without any restrictions, everyone looking out for another, a people that have been made stateless, have had to organise and fend for themselves at the same time maintaining dignity, whilst being wrongfully judged. Not only did I want to depict the struggle of the Kenyan Nubians through this project, my aim was to showcase the strength, perseverance and beauty of this rich culture, the people and Kibera (Kibra). From the slums of Kenya and refugee camps of Lebanon to the sugar plantations of the Dominican Republic and the far reaches of Bangladesh, men, women and children across the world have found themselves living without citizenship rights. Rejected by their countries of birth and unwelcome everywhere else, they are called by international rights organizations “the stateless. So, by maming a local connection; giving a voice to one of Kenya’s most invisible tribes, I see this film as playing a role in representing their humanity and dignity - showing the strength of a tribe who are discriminated against and often persecuted. Not only are they not accepted as Kenyans, the difficulties they face are often not understood by other Kenyans. They are judged constantly, they are 'The Other Tribe'.