The Land Of No Men: Inside Kenya’s Women-Only Village
Umoja is literally a no man’s
land in Kenya – a matriarchal refuge where men are not allowed. The village,
founded 25 years ago by Rebecca Lolosoli, is meant to be a safe haven for women
and girls who want to escape abuse in the otherwise patriarchal society of the
Samburu people, in northern Kenya.
Rebecca, a member of the
Samburu tribe, now serves as the chief matriarch of ‘Umoja Usau Women’s
Village’. Having witnessed occasional violence as a child, she slowly came to
the conclusion that some of the traditional Samburu practices were inherently
abusive towards women. So she began to speak out against these practices, in
favour of widows, orphans, and victims of rape, female genital cutting, and
forced marriage.
Rebecca’s outspoken attitude
was met with a lot of resistance. Things got out of hand when she spoke up for
a few women who were raped by British soldiers training nearby. Men in her
village beat her up, and her husband did not protest on her behalf. So in 1990,
she led a female exodus and started her own village.
“For more than 50 years,
British soldiers trained in our area,” she told Satya Magazine. “Wearing green uniforms they
blended with the trees and when women collected firewood, the soldiers would
jump out and rape them, laughing like it was a game. The men made their wives
leave, taking the children with them. Then they had nothing and many would
resort to brewing changaa (an alcoholic drink) to earn money, but it is illegal
to sell this, and the women were jailed, leaving their children without
caregivers and some were eaten by hyenas.”
“My own husband was not bad,”
she added. “We married when I was 18, and he paid a dowry of 17 cows. But four
men in the village didn’t like me because I started selling goods, and they
beat me up and took my money. Then I started talking about helping the rape
victims and the next time my husband left on business, the men beat me
severely. I left the hospital and my parents said I should rejoin my husband.
He said nothing about what the men had done, and so I realized I could be
killed, so I left.”
Rebecca got together with 16
survivors of violence and forged a community for mutual protection, setting up
camp on an unwanted field of dry grasslands. Soon, ‘Umoja’ – which means unity
in Swahili – was born. It has now evolved into a thriving, self-sustaining
village. The women have taken up jewelry making and other crafts, and are able
to provide for their children and themselves by opening up their village as a
tourist attraction. They’ve also pooled resources to set up a sickness and
disability fund, a community center, and a school. The area is prone to
drought, so the women have decreased their dependence on cattle. They have a
chicken coop that provides both income and protein to the residents.
“Men are forbidden to live in
the village, but may visit as long as they behave and abide by them women’s
rules,” Rebecca said. “Our objectives are to improve the livelihoods of the
women due to rampant poverty and counter the problem of women being abandoned
by their families. We also rescue and rehabilitate girls who run away from or
were thrown out by their parents due to early pregnancies or marriages.”
Although the women of Umoja are
doing well for themselves, it was not always an easy ride. Rebecca explained
that they started off with small mobile shops where they sold maize meal and
sugar, but the idea did not take off. After two years of failure, they decided
to try selling traditional artifacts to tourists. Recognising their efforts,
authorities from the Kenyan Wildlife Services took the women on an educational
tour to the Maasai Mara National Reserve, to see what sort of tourist products
were sold there.
“Immediately on return, we
embarked on an ambitious project of cultural manyatta and campsite, a project
that has to date seen only success and which we depend on,” Rebecca said. “We
decided to sell our beadwork to tourists and market our village as a tourist
attraction. We have been able to establish a school for the children of Umoja
and surrounding villages.”
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| Rebecca Lolosoli |
Once they started making a
decent amount of money, the women had to deal with more persecution at the
hands of jealous men. “Some men set up a village nearby to block the road and
stop tourists from coming here,” Rebecca recalled. “Once, 30 warriors beat us
in front of tourists to make it look like this place was corrupt.” So the women
decided to buy the land for themselves, to stop the men from driving them away.
They saved for months for the down payment, and it cost them about 200,000
shillings. The men, of course, tried to stop them from buying it, but they
eventually managed to close the deal.
From the time Umoja was set up,
Rebecca has repeatedly been elected the chairperson, a position she still
holds. She is also the chair of the local chapter of Maendeleo Ya Wanawake
Organization (MYWO), a nonprofit group that works to improve the lives of women
in Kenya. In 2010, Rebecca received the Global Leadership Award from Vital
Voices, another nonprofit that works for women and human rights. At age 53, she
is a successful businesswoman and continues to work tirelessly against unsafe
cultural practices in Kenya
Despite everything the women
have achieved, Rebecca says that their biggest obstacles are the men. “The men
are jealous of our achievements,” she explained. “The Samburu are a patriarchal
society where women are bunched together with children. They do not have the
right to make decisions or own property. Even men who went to school and some
political are fighting us on this but we are soldiering to reverse this. Our
area Member of Parliament could not believe we have a website and was really
infuriated how advanced we are!”
Nevertheless, Umoja is serving
as an example of a successful matriarchy, empowering women in other districts
to start their own exclusive villages. They all work towards a common goal – to
rid their society of negative cultural practices that are violent towards
women. More power to them!