Dowry Prison: Untold Story of Rwandan Women

This is the story of my grandmother and other women in my mother's generation as well as my generation; who were sold the idea of honor in dowries and marriage but later found out they were cattle.

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Inspiration

The inspiration for this is my grandmother, who is the matriarch of our family, and yet she was sold off at sixteen, had her education cut short, and was forced into a life of servitude to her husband and raising a family. She was manipulated into marriage, and as soon as the dowry had been paid and she went to his house, he became abusive. She ran back home, and they told her that she could no longer come back. That was the end of it.

Years later, when the Rwandan genocide began, that is when my grandmother finally said she was leaving. She had eight children at the time, and he wanted to stay in the country. She only managed to leave with seven, leaving one behind. It was not until more than thirty years later that she was able to bring her son to the United States.

This woman survived a war with six children and still somehow kept her spirit. I always wonder what she could have become if it had not been for the war, if it had not been for the dowry. She is an incredible person, and I just get to reap the benefits of her resilience.

What it does

The purpose of the YouTube video is to begin telling stories of women who historically have not been able to tell their own stories. I am a refugee woman, born from oppression, to put it simply, and women like me rarely have access or resources to speak for ourselves. Most of the time, the media tells our stories for us. We get translated through others, filtered through languages and systems that were never built for us.

Having the privilege to speak English, and to understand enough technology to use these tools, means I can finally tell the stories of the women around me and the women I grew up with. I do not take that lightly.

The aim is to educate, but also to feel seen, because I do not see our stories in the media. I am tired of waiting. I am grateful for AI because it allows me to tell these stories, even when it is emotionally draining. Without these tools, I do not think I could have shared this story or put it out into the world.

How we built it

To make this story, I used many AI platforms. I used Gemini VEO and RunwayML for the videos, and ElevenLabs for the narration. I wrote the story myself.

It was a very iterative process, writing, generating visuals, refining prompts, and stitching together short clips until it felt true to Josephine’s experience and my grandmother’s life.

Challenges we ran into

There were many challenges. Even finding the right AI tools took time. Each video creator has its limits: RunwayML only gives 4 to 5 seconds per clip, Gemini Veo gave only 8 seconds, and they both often struggled with faces or continuity. I would create a beautiful scene, and then in the next clip the woman’s face would change, or her skin tone would shift, or she would suddenly look into the camera, which breaks the emotion completely.

To fight that “uncanny valley” feeling, I had to be very intentional, making sure no one looked into the camera and reusing reference frames to keep Josephine consistent.

To edit and put the clips together I used iMovie on my iPad. For the narration, I used ElevenLabs. I tried recording my own voice and modifying it, but it was messy and emotionally heavy. It is still very personal for me, and in my culture, speaking openly about dowry abuse or marriage violence is taboo. So I'm grateful that I could use AI to speak the story I wrote.

It was hard to listen to the story over and over again while editing, but I kept going because I do not want my family’s stories to disappear.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

When I finished writing the story, I read it aloud to those around me. At first, I did not think it was a big deal, but my partner reminded me that what I had done was important. That encouragement kept me going when it felt too heavy.

I am proud of finishing the project despite the technical and emotional challenges. I am proud that I was able to create a short film made entirely of dark-skinned, Rwandan characters, something AI still struggles with. Some clips took hundreds of tries, but I kept going until the visuals matched the story.

I am self-critical, but I look forward to improving the flow and scene transitions in future projects. Mostly, I am just grateful that this technology exists, because without it, I would not have been able to put this story out.

What we learned

I learned a lot about AI filmmaking, prompt writing, and persistence. I now know which tools work best for what I need. I also learned how to use reference images to maintain visual continuity across clips.

After I finished posting the story and sharing it with my mother, she felt inspired to also use AI to tell her own stories around her own oppression. My mother, who told me to keep silent for most of my life, wanted to tell stories around the double standards and oppression women experience in marriage. Shoutout to AI for that moment!

What's next for Dowry Prison: Untold Story of Rwandan Women

I plan on continuing to tell these stories because it helps me feel like I am fighting the culture of silence.

Women like my mother, my grandmother, and myself have not always had the privilege of choosing how our stories are told. Now that I have that chance, I do not want to waste it. AI gives me a limitless opportunity to honor their strength and make sure the next generation knows where we came from and what we survived.

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