The Samburu people are some of the friendliest in Kenya. Originally a nomadic tribe, the Samburu today still embraces their nomadic culture while jointly running some of the best Kenya game lodges.
The Samburu culture practice communal tenure, with all decisions concerning land made by the men. Their culture does not permit it’s women to own land or any type of property. Actually, women are considered properties of their husbands.
Liberating women from the bondage, thirty years after, Umoja was founded by Rebecca Lolosoli in 1990.
Umoja, a matriarchal rural Kenya community is a women-only village located near the town of Archers post in Samburu county, 380km from the capital, Nairobi.
Umoja has served as sanctuary for women who have been victims of domestic violence, rape, forced marriages, child marriages and female genital mutilation. This is why no man is allowed in Umoja.
All of Kenya’s major ethnic groups have a patriarchal structure where the oldest men within a tribe control politics, arrange marriages, and elevate younger men by awarding them properties, livestock and women. Wife inheritance and polygamy are culturally accepted practices.
At village meetings, men sit in an inner circle to discuss important village issues, while the women sit outside, only occasionally allowed to express an opinion. Women are subjected to traditions that undermine their values as people. By dominating the land and livestock, men control the flow of money in the agriculture-based economy. They also enforce a concerning cultural norm: widespread of violence and brutality against women.
It is a cultural norm for women to be subjected to female genital mutilation (girls who are in their puberty under such process), sexual assault, child marriages, domestic violence, spousal abuse and rape.
Women are attacked and raped while they are out gathering firewood or fetching water.
When a woman is raped she is not clean any more. Once victims, they are ostracized and sometimes literally shunned or removed from the community. It is not good to be unmarried with children in Samburu culture. Such were the case of most Kenyan women, they accepted their fate with silence, unable to fight for their rights.
In 1990, 14 Kenya women were raped by British soldiers at one Samburu village. They were subsequently shamed and stigmatized by their community and deemed unworthy of marriage and family.
Rebecca Lolosoli been the courageous non-conforming women she is, would always use every opportunity she got to educate women on their rights, while also fighting for the cause of girls and women who were victims.
Soon, word of Rebecca’s cultural rebellion began to create enmity for her as she became a target to angry men in the village who believe women had no right to speak up.
Rebecca has faced repeated threats and attacks from local men including her husband since setting up the village, but she is undeterred. She was in the hospital recovering from the beating she received from Samburu men as a result of her attempts to educate the women on their rights, when she came up with the idea of women-only village. Lolosoli, together with the 14 women left their villages and created their own women village and called it Umoja, a Swahili word for “Unity”.
For 30 years now, in the rift valley of Samburu in Northern Kenya, a matriarchal community thrives headed by Rebecca Lolosoli.
Here, women are leaders, homeowners, entrepreneurs, and caregivers. They govern and sustain themselves successfully. They wear traditional Samburu dress of patterned skirts, brightly coloured shirts and a kanga (a colourful wrap) tied on their shoulders.
Necklaces made of strings of vividly coloured beads from stunning circular patterns around their necks. They coexist peacefully and teach their children the importance of gender equality. They are allowed to have sexual relations with men outside the village at will even though these men weren’t permitted to live with them in Umoja. If and when any of the women choose to leave, they are empowered, ready to start anew with partners of their choice. Whenever a woman leaves Umoja to return to her husband, the others make sure she does not revert to second-class status. They teach her about her rights and even follow up to ensure that she actually gets to enjoy these rights, including seeing whether she is well dressed and has ownership of some property.
Though Umoja initially started as an exclusive escape for Lolosoli and her 14 compatriots, the population has grown to 50 women and about 200 children. The community is actually opened to all survivors of sexual abuse and violence as a place to escape abuse and heal.
Surrounded by a protective fence of thorns, a traditional Samburu huts known as Manyattas dot the landscape. The Manyattas are made with wood, twigs and cow dung.
Inside, the only light is from the glowing embers of a fire anchored by three large rocks. There are clothes drying in the midday sun on top of the huts. The sound of cackling chicken and giggling children fill the air. In the evening the tiny, modular structures are full of life, with chattering women sitting around the fire to talk about their day as beans and corn simmer in large pots. Outside the huts, women sit on mats to watch children play. Sometimes, they sing and dance to traditional Samburu songs, their brightly colored ornaments and wraps moving with the beats. Other times, they quietly make the round beaded necklaces that are a trademark among Samburu women, which they sell to make money for the community.
There is a tree known as the ” the tree of speech”, where the women also speak freely of their fears, dreams, goals and achievements. When the male kids reaches the age of 18, they have to leave the village.
The women of Umoja run a campsite a kilometer away by the river for tourists who visit the village. They charge a moderate fee. The women make handmade colourful beaded jewelries in the craft centre which are put up for sale to the tourist. Recently travel restrictions to curb the corona virus pandemic means they currently have no income. Tourist no longer visit as usual. So they have to depend on their savings until they can sell beads again. They built a school, where the more experienced women train and educate women and girls of Umoja and surrounding villages on issues such as early marriage and female genital mutilation.
There has been various attempts by several men to break into the village. In an attempt to sabotage Umoja, Samburu men came together to form their own men-only village right near Umoja village. But fortunately for the women, the Kenyan wildlife services came to their aid by introducing them to other successful groups who helped them improve on their crafts and business skills, which in turn made their business successful.
Eventually, the men’s plot to sabotage Umoja didn’t work and they soon lost their land which was later purchased by the Umoja women for 200,000 shillings ($2,700).
The village attracted the attention of the Ministry of Culture as well. The women of Umoja are on the brink of being granted the title deed by the Keyan Government to a tract of grazing land which they bought a few years ago with savings and donation. A right they never would have had outside the village.
The government is currently considering their application for a community title for the land, which is due to be partitioned.
If granted, the land title would help protect the women and their livelihood from clashes over land and water that frequently break out between the Samburu and rival communities.
The women of Umoja travel to nearby communities to teach people about the importance of including women in land and property ownership.They are motivating near by communities to also start giving land rights to women.
Sources:
The guardian
History of yesterday
CNN
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Amp project
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