Widows' Village Tepesua

The notion of peace-building is broad. At its best, it involves diverse processes that contribute to building positive relationships, healing wounds, reconciling differences, restoring self-esteem, rebuilding communities, instilling feelings of security, and empowering agency. This past week, I visited one place that is a manifestation of peace-building. 

Tepesua is a widows' village on the road between Narok and Maasai Mara Game Reserve. It was established by Hellen Nykuraiya a Maasai woman who at the age of nine years, underwent female genital mutilation (FGM), was married at 11 years to a man much older than herself, and ran away to finish her education. She was shunned by her family and community. Within her cultural traditions she will never be allowed to remarry, nor has she any rights to inheritance. (Below is a photograph of Hellen and some of the other widows in Tepesua).

Early marriage is common in this community and girls are frequently traded for two or three cows and are not able to return home unless with the cows (and any of their offspring) are also returned. Due to the large age gap between husband and wife, women are widowed very young and have no inheritance rights - frequently cast out by the husbands relations leaving them to fend for themselves. But with no education, they have little skills to support their children and frequently turn to working in the sex trade to put food on the table. Hellen purchased some land and has created a village for widows to live who have been widowed or cast out by their families in some other conflict.

Hellen adheres strongly to her Maasai culture but believes even more strongly that giving a girl an education is important. FGM is a typical practice and a right of passage into womanhood in the Maasai community. Although illegal in Kenya it is still promoted by mothers and grandmothers throughout the country. It is a part of the culture. Hellen has begun to reconcile differences within the community by opening a boarding school where girls who have been brought to the authorities can live free from fear of FGM and early marriage. The children wear school uniforms on Mondays and Fridays and the rest of the week, they wear traditional Maasai clothing - a balance between traditional culture and new ideas of educating girls. To help with conflict within the community about what she is doing, the "rescue centre" is known as a school inviting boys in as well as girls. The only difference between the girls who are rescued and the other children is those rescued continue to live at the school when there is a break. Returning home would result in their circumcision and early marriage.  

Here are some of the children walking to school in traditional Maasai clothing . . .

And some of the rescued girls in school uniform

By providing these girls with an education and by challenging the traditions of her community the girls will gain agency, self-esteem while at the same time, instill knowledge and respect for their culture.

Re-storying narratives evolved into a shared vision

I want to talk to you about the symbols the women chose for their images of peace. The majority of Kenyans are very patriotic and the images the women chose to paint and embroider reflected this patriotism - symbols that focused on the unity of Kenyans - going beyond tribal difference. As one woman said this election must stand for "one Community, one Nation, one Kenya".

A couple of images focused on home and broken hearts but for the majority, as you can see in the photograph, the predominant image was the Kenyan flag as it's symbolism is important to the notion of peace: Green reflecting the abundant fertile soil; red reflecting the blood shed in the fight for independence; black representative of the colour of the people; white is a symbol of peace and unity.

When the women worked together on the final section of the work on paper - their Hopes and Dreams for the future - there was much discussion about their desire for a stronger infrastructure than currently exists within their community. They drew many hospitals, toilets, schools, transportation such as railways and roads, but they also drew flowers that they said represented new beginnings and unity - very important concepts to them all. The images and words they chose reflected a shared vision of a community that is united and peaceful.

By reflecting on their past and on how their communities were before the violence, they were able to bring forward their experiences and reflect on how those experiences have informed their desire for peace and their strong advocacy. Each narrative, rather than ending with discussions around their victimization, vehemently reflected their understanding of themselves as triumphant and their desire that, as women, they could make a difference in their communities - teaching their sons about peace , and standing strong together in the upcoming election.

Life Bloom

I want to tell you about a woman who is doing a tremendous amount to heal the community of sex trade workers in Kenya - in particular Naivasha, Maai Mahiu, and the Ngara and Kayole districts of Nairobi. Catherine Wanjohi is co-founder of Life Bloom. Since 2003 Catherine has been running leadership workshops with sex workers, women who suffer from alcohol and drug abuse, are victims of spousal violence, and rape. Many of the women with whom she and her team of peer counselors work to encourage education, reduce poverty, enhance gender equity.

Each workshop begin with a prayer that often turns to dance . . .

One of the peer counselors spends her evenings walking up and down the main road that passes Maai Mahiu town. Here, each night she talks to sex workers and truckers promoting safety, the use of condoms, and encouraging testing for STIs and HIV/AIDS. Each night she passes out over 500 condoms. She explained to me that sex workers are different from prostitutes as sex workers, given another opportunity, would leave the trade and go into another, less dangerous field. These women are doing this work to put food on their tables, to feed their children and extended family. As they have limited education - primary school if they are lucky - they have been forced into the sex trade, and stigmatization makes it difficult for them in their community.

Catherine spends her time visiting brothels encouraging these women and, in doing so, shifts the community perception and stigma. She works to heal this community through education, peer support, and leadership and advocacy work. To date, she has worked with over 4,000 women and have over 500 trained peer educators (mentors). Through her work, and that of her "graduates" she helps create relational spaces which provide a safe place for these marginalized women to gain confidence, knowledge and begin to change their lives.

Kibera Women peacebuilders

Yesterday I ran my first workshop with seven women who had suffered during the 2007 post-election violence. Hosted at the Kenyan office of Interchange, the women arrived at 8:30 and remained until 3pm when they had to pick their children up from school. They are doing a lot to build peace in their homes and in their communities in the hopes of avoiding a repeat in the coming weeks. I asked them to consider what their idea of peace was, how they knew when there is peace in their homes/community and what they do individually to promote peace within their community. They wrote their answers on pieces of paper and placed them in a basket for discussion later.

We spent the day together, talking about their experiences, the concept of peace and what is means to them individually and what they are doing in their homes and communities to promote peace. We worked on a group project that reflected their perceptions of their community before 2007, during the violence of 2007/08, what things had changed from 2008 - 2012 (perhaps the calm before the election of 2013 when they feel tribal tensions are rising again) and their hopes and dreams for the future after the election.  These women are all from different tribes, had never met before and are courageous! They worked as a group and individually.

Using Lederach's concept of Expanded Framework for Peacebuilding we considered re-storying the past and "the past that lies before us" and explored the break in their personal narratives brought on by the post-election violence. (The felt model of the framework is by Jaqui Jesso, Interchange)

At the end of the day, I supplied them with pieces of white cotton, fabric markers and embroidery thread and they were invited to re-explore the concept of peace and to create something that symbolized either the stories that they shared earlier in the day, or reflected peace in some way.  They decided they would take these individual works home with them and they said they would put them on the walls of their Kibera homes.

Women for women

The past week I have been attending peacebuilding workshops facilitated by women during which time the men who were attending said they imagined the facilitator would be a white male. I have also been speaking with women who are advocating for other women - trying to make a difference at the grass roots level. And now, I find myself puzzled with my own intellectual and research processes wondering if I am undertaking an investigation into grass roots, structured forms of peacebuilding, or if I am seeking to gain an understanding of more informal peace building/community healing processes that are seen within Kenyan society.

Let me explain. There is much research that reflects organizations that advocate for women's rights and encourages women participants in formal peace building agendas such as Women in Peacebuilding in Liberia, Women for Women, and PeaceWomen. But what happens behind closed doors, in places where there is little access to media or infrastructure. How do women who are working quietly in theri communities, bridging Tribal difference through friendships contribute to peacebuilding in a meaningful way? At the same time, I have also been reflecting on the idea why are there not more women in peacebuilding processes . . what is it that women bring to the peace table and why is their role so different than men's.

Below is a TED talk by Jody Williams: A Realistic Vision for World Peace during which a Nobel Peace Laureate articulates the need for creativity and a new approach to peace. She sees peace as "a sustainable peace for justice and equality" where people "have enough resources to live dignified lives".

I found her talk to be inspiring although it raised so many more questions about my research here in Kenya during this pre-election time when there is uncertainty and fear of a reoccurance of the 2007 post-election violence, that resulted in so much displacement of women, men and families.

I welcome your comments and ideas.