Samburu women

I will not be updating my blog for a couple of weeks as I will be spending the time pulling together all I have been learning, seeing and experiencing over the past few months in Kenya and Uganda.

In the meantime, a few more images to wet your appetite and consider the role of women in community healing

Mother and child, Samburu

A meeting with the women of Unity Village

And now I begin to wrap up my journey here, to write, to try to make sense of it all.

I have been humbled by the generosity of all whom I have met and worked with both in Kenya and Uganda. 

Asante Sana

Peacebuilding takes all forms

A couple of days ago I took a half day safari being driven into the Samburu Game Park by Tom Lolisoli, son of Rebecca Lolisoli who is running for parliament here - a daring thing to do in such a patriarchal country . . . but that is another story that I will tell later.

As we entered the park we were told about a lion who had attacked a calf just on the edge of the park. The pastoralist was bringing the cattle back to his land after taking them to graze near the park. The conservationists were able to track the lion and shoot it with a dart to put it to sleep. They then moved it to a different location and placed beside it a recently killed gazelle (it had been badly injured and would not have survived so the conservationist euthanized it). When the lion woke up it was able to feast on the beast. The calf was fine as the lion had been scared off in time and the pastoralist could continue to care for his livestock.

In this instance the story ends well for all parties. The calf is alive and well, which makes the pastoralist happy; the lion is well fed and relocated; the conservationist has been able to maintain the balance between man and and the wild. But often times this is not the case. In many instances - when an elephant attacks a farm for instance - the farmer may shoot the elephant which upsets the conservationist.

These lionesses are full after devouring an injured elephant, but that is wild against wild and therefore no conflict. By the way, these lionesses were helped by 21 crocodiles who took their turn and cautiously tore pieces off the elephant when the lionesses were distracted by their own eating.

Another instance in which conflict can arise is when women go to the river to fetch water. Often they have been attacked by crocodiles and in some cases, if accompanied by men, the crocodile will be shot. Many organizations now build water tanks in villages in order to save the women and crocodiles. Here one of the women in Umoja village carries a 25 kilo pail of water back to her village. Although a ways from the village, she can gather fresh water that is clean enough to drink.

So the question is . . Is the conflict between man and animal or is it between the pastoralist and the conservationist?  There are increasing instances in Kenya and Uganda where peacebulding techniques are used to resolve conflict between the pastorialist and conservationist, between man and nature.

Community

I just left Umoja and Unity, two women-only villages in the Samburu district of Kenya. The average temperature in this arid part of the country during the past five days ranged from 41 - 47 degrees celsius. Although hot, it was not highly oppressive, as the humidity is low and, when standing along the edge of the Ewasa Nyiere river, a breeze cools your skin. However, the heat does make the lives of these women more difficult as their huts are structures made of wood and mud or newspaper. The interiors consist of three rooms. One is for sitting and eating together, another larger rooms is where the children sleep and, next to where the cooking is done, is a goat-hide upon which the mother sleeps.

Unlike most Kenyans, the Samburu and Maasai have maintained the old way of life, choosing to come together in villages rather than purchasing their own "shamba" - a plot of about an acre of personally owned land that they farm individually. The importance to people living within the villages in working together is palpable. The Samburu also have large families of 7 to 15 children making it difficult to gather enough money for food, clothing and education.

The reason why this is important to the notion of community is when people stop working together, toward the benefit of all, life can be much harder. Most of these women have come to these villages to escape arranged marriages, female genital mutilation (FGM), or they have been sent away form their husbands because they have been raped. Although performing FGM is viewed internationally as a violation of human rights, shifting cultural practice is something completely different. The grandmothers still push for female circumcision as they fear the young women who are not circumcised will not be able to marry.

 
In these villages women are truly working together and the collaboration is what is making all of their lives easier. It appears to me that they heal their community and re-story their lives through collectively working towards financial independence and building new lives for their children, other women in nearby villages, and for themselves.