Safe Maa Diary: Day 4 & 5

Song and theatre are bringing positive change to the Samburu of northern Kenya, in a unique and remarkable way – See the background to the SAFE MAA project.

Bi Ali Allport, The Safari Collection’s Community and Conservation Manager 

SAFE Maa Diary: Day 4

Today, we visited an area of the Westage conservancy that we did not go to last year, home to the Westgate head of security.

He had done an excellent job mobilising all the families from around – it is the most densely populated areas of the conservancy. There were over about 100 people waiting for us including children, girls, boys, men and women.

The traditional welcoming rituals of the Samburu women are always amazing to watch, and today was no different. Before the team could get started, the women welcomed the team and they all sang together. The performance was well received and the Safe Maa girls spent time with the women afterwards discussing the performance.

The Samburu women were explaining that in this culture, a un-circumcised woman cannot be married, and they believe that if a girl has a baby before they are cut, the mother and child will both be stigmatized and outcast from the community.

The family make a new opening in the boma surrounding the village and the girl is asked to leave through it and then they close the opening and she is forgotten forever.

ErEXMifXG93jMCi4bNVmO4fkpFc7e94_ZyblojebY4Q,0Dov-UrKu6CPHQBsAaFWL37B7WR4Ezy2fk2zXwtvm74

The Safe Maa team asked them about any problems they may have encountered in their lives as a result of being circumcised, and the women said that during childbirth, they do have problems due to scarring. They said that if they could explain that to the elders, this may be a way to initiate a change in traditional practice.

Some of the older women also spoke openly about being in polygamous marriages. They discussed that the Samburu men take more than one wife in order to satisfy their sexual appetite. Some of the older women were saying that after circumcision, they can no longer satisfy their husbands alone.

Wj0ejy3Zkef96X5qy1G9rZ3JnwZDPIiOG3Jd5a3agSU,odzyQ8KbjOy5Z0lyy0nIhmcgc_SxugFwUZmzJZk-Y6I

On the subject of HIV, there is acceptance that there is a disease within the community that kills, and they want the men to be better educated and encouraged to use condoms, and they would also like more education to help them understand the disease better and how to deal with it.

The Safe Samburu team was also introduced to the audience and their future role within this community explained.

Another very positive day.

DAY 5

Today we did our second women’s workshop at Sasaab village, which was very well supported.

The women were so excited from the start and so involved. At the end, when the women came to say thank you, I could tell that they were genuinely grateful to have spent the day initially with Amos and David learning about HIV and then with Sarah and Christine learning about and discussing female circumcision.

Throughout the workshop all the women participated, and not just the same people all the time. They had had different contributions to make and questions to ask. They really appreciated that people had actually come to the village to explain about HIV.

K-3xCMlMx-rw5Xnc4E7w0O0-0vYILEaK8IWm7JW4g1I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the women have never even seen condoms, and the feeling is that with more exposure to the importance of prevention and the extent of HIV in the community – they will be encouraged to use them.

There is much more resistance to the idea of changing the traditions of female circumcision.

Women still feel that their girls will be outcast and they know it will take time to change this. There needs to be much more communication and education and the women were asking for the youth group to address this issue with the men, who are the heads of the family and in a much stronger position to initiate changes.

BY:

JOURNEY WITH US TO EXPERIENCE KENYA

GET IN TOUCH TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR TOURS

RELATED NEWS