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Download "Living well is the best revenge" pdf Living well is the best revenge A Kenyan village run by women is healthier and more prosperous than the places that men rule, writes Elizabeth Tadic.
I felt a quiet sense of relief when I learnt that my next overseas assignment for Dateline would be to Kenya, a country renowned for its safaris and wildlife beauty, instead of some unpredictable war zone like the Gaza Strip. Little did I realise that even in this land of great natural beauty, one still needs to look over one’s shoulder from time to time, for a different kind of danger. After a bumpy five-hour drive along potholed roads, I arrive in the remote Samburu town of Archer’s Post, some 325 kilometres north of Nairobi, where Kenya’s desert begins. The sun beats down unrelentingly on the scorched earth. It’s a hostile and inhospitable environment, yet splendid with its savannah plains and untouched wilderness. Half-clad Samburu warriors adorned with feathers and flowers stand around smugly holding their spears outside wooden shacks on the main drag, guarding their turf. I’m looking for the women-only village and unwittingly ask one of the Samburu warriors. “We beat them, we beat them! The women, no good! Bad women!” one of the men spits out whilst another drunken lad prohibits me from filming the scene. Any reminder of a village where women rule galvanises the local men into searing anger. One hundred metres out of town down a sandy track, I arrive at the women-only village called Umoja, which means unity in Swahili. A group of Samburu women dressed in colourful clothes welcomes me with a traditional song and dance. They proudly sing about being the blessed women of Umoja and show no signs of their sordid history of domestic abuse and victimisation. In 1990, a dozen women started Umoja after their husbands beat them up and threw them out. Their husbands justified their actions after their wives complained of being raped by British soldiers from a nearby army base. In Samburu culture, a woman who is raped becomes taboo and is ostracised by the entire community. She is beaten and thrown out with nothing, not even her children. “If we see a man beating a woman, we like it,” remarks one of the estranged husbands. “It’s knocking some sense into her. That’s our culture, our custom.” But the Samburu women banded together and formed a women-only village. The matriarch of Umoja, Rebecca Lolosoli, says men are forbidden to live in the village but may visit as long as they behave and abide by the women’s rules. The women still have sexual relations with men but only when they feel like procreating. Over the years, many other Samburu women fleeing domestic violence have come to the village seeking refuge. There are now more than 50 women living in Umoja, and Rebecca has helped create other women-only villages in the region to meet the growing demands. She says the men are afraid of what Umoja represents and terrified of losing their wives. “The men say, ‘Oh, don’t let your wife stay there for more than a week. Please don’t let her drink the water of Umoja, she will be influenced by Umoja and you will not get her back again’,” says Rebecca laughing. The women of Umoja have good reason to laugh. Their village is prospering, with sales of their craft work to tourists visiting from the nearby Samburu Game Reserve. Since coming together, they’ve opened up a bank account, built a camping ground and can afford to send their children to school. They have money to buy new clothes and have more than fifty head of cattle, a sure sign of status in Samburu culture. In an act of spite, the men set up their own village not too far away so that they can keep a close eye on the rebellious women. Now they mount day-time raids on Umoja, demanding money and at one point they even tried stealing Umoja’s cows. Indeed, whilst I was there one of the men snuck into Umoja and tried beating up his estranged wife merely for being fat. The men are now requesting their wives come back to them. “Just because the women have money and are shining and beautiful, the men want us back”, says Rebecca. But having tasted freedom, the women of Umoja are adamant that they will not return to their abusive husbands. Elizabeth Tadic is a journalist with the SBS program Dateline. This article was first published in The Diplomat |
