I feel like I write these notes moving towards the future but about the past. I am currently still in Lamu, my last day here, before moving on to Rwanda via looooong bus ride through Uganda.
Where did I leave off? Male circumcision.....and then female. Many ethnic groups in Kenya and other parts of the world practice female circumcision, also known by the politically weighted term "female genital mutilation: (FGM), and it is considered a human rights issues with the UN in support of ending the practice of FGM as a female right of passage due to the many health complications that arise from the practice. So disclaimer: I am going to talk about the different forms of FGM practiced and what I learned from my time in the Massai Mara around communities who still, although decreasingly, practice FGM.
It is considered a right of passage for woman as well as men to be circumcised into adultood. The health workers we spoke to were rather shy, as is common in Kenyan women, and much of the frank conversation the west is more used to is not common place here. But alas, we had a meeting with two comunity nurses where we were able to speak openly about what alot of us were curious about of a practice which was very foreign to us.
When the time came the class was pretty reserved as well but, of course, I was upfront about questions I had. So the nurses described different variations of FGM that occur. In the olden days a group of women would get together and support the one being circumcisized. As for the older practice, the only description we coulf get was that the surgeon (other community member) "cut to the bone". Whatever that means, I took it as being a pretty severe portion of the vagina being removed. The more contemporary versions that take place are removal of the labia and clitorus, sometimes just the clitorus. There is no antistesia invloved in the procedure and when I asked a woman who had seen two done, she said she never saw the girls cry.
I think it is important to remember that inside of the social systems people in these communities work from, it is a sign of dignity to perform a rite of passage, and without such things (more so in the past) you were stigmatized and unwanted.
After the procedure the woman spends a month alone healing. It is not unheard of for women to die from infectious complications. It is rumored that part of the ceremony is to ensure that the woman will not cheat on her husband if she cannot receive pleasure from sexual activity. How true this is goes without saying.
Some parts of the world do more extreme versions like cutting everything off then sewing the vagina closed, leaving only a small hole for excretion and after childbirth they are sewn back up again. After being cut (with any variation of FGM) scar tissue forms and complicates childbirth. The scars tear causing more probability for infection and increased pain.
At the museum in Nairobi there was a display for the Maasai people and there was a t-shirt amongst the display the stated "Supporting Alternative Initiation Rituals for Women". So there definitely is public initiatives to eradicate and replace the practice but these things are slow. And with the introduction of schooling becoming more popular in rural Kenya it empowers the girls closer towards a position of having a voice to oppose the practice. Although, like I said, it is a point of pride and some girls choose it. They circumcise women around 16 years old. On another note, education is not free and much of the time the cost prohibits poorer families from sending their children to school.
Female circumcision is illegal in Kenya, along with gay marriage, but how do you enforce something like that. And one counter-intuitive repercussion of making it illegal is that now women have to be secretive and subsequently less sterile about the proceedure increasing their personal health risks. It is a hard topic.
Ok, I must go write my final paper! Ahhhh! But then school is done. Keep sending the comments.
All the Best.
Love,
Chelsea
Monday, June 22, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Lamu - World Heritage Site
Hello, Lamu Kenya is where Craig and I are staying at the moment. We decided to retreat to this wonderful island to finish our final papers away from the bustle of many other Kenyan cities. I encourage you to look Lamu up on the internet, it's quite an anomaly. No cars, just donkeys (who don't like the rain).
Quick note: I am in an internet cafe on Lamu right now and there are two young Norweigan boys who are always in here playing hours worth of interactive internet games everyday, they make me laugh...
But to back track a bit, the Maasi Mara...southwestern Kenya, home to big game and large ethnic groups who are either pastoralists or small scale agriculturalists. All throughout the academic course we were hosted by a Canadian non-profit organization called Me to We/Free the Children. They build schools and hospitals in rural Kenya and other locations across the globe. So one of their sites is in the Maasi Mara in a community of Kipsigi (sp?) peoples. Kipsigi are small scale farmers whose neighbors surrounding them in the hills are the Maasi people.
While we spent 11 days in the Mara doing our course work and helping build a clinic in the Kipsigi community we had two Maasi guides with us, Peter and Clinton (whose favorite music is Celine Dion to the delite of all the Canadians I was traveling with, Celine is HUGE in Africa-even the rural hills). The Maasi are rather famous globally, they are pastoralists who wear the red blankets as a dress (men and women, a lot of men in Kenya wear skirts) and a delicacy of the Maasi is mixing milk with cows blood. This concoction (sworn up and down by Peter and Clinton to be wonderful) provides them with sufficient calcium and protein.
Note: I have been very hesitant to write to a western audience about the customs of the Maasi or Kipsigi because I fear an instant reaction of judgemet from the readers. I have decided what I feel is ethically within my boundaries to share and I would please ask of you to remember the radical difference in lifestyles, history, and worlds you and the ethnic peoples of Kenya live in. That is not to say that some things are not supposed to stretch you out of your comfort zone, that has been happening to me all this trip, but as you read try to conceptualize it in a space before judgement, floating in wonder instead.
Ok, so milk and blood, other initiation rituals are coming to age processes for men and women. For the men, around 16 the bottom front tooth is removed (with no antestisia) by the father from a method of cutting the gums and pulling the tooth. This practice is meant to mark the member of the tribe as Maasi wherever they go.
Another, and very important ritual, is the male circumsicion which happens around 15-18 years old. After this ritual the boys are considered men and endowed with all of the rights given in manhood. Including taking a wife, sex, and providing for a family. So the circumcision is done without the aid of pain killers, and a clause in the whole thing, is that the boys are not allowed the slightest flinch or wince during the proceedure. If they do they will be austricized from the society indefinetly as cowards and have a hard time taking a wife.
In the past, after the circumsicion ritual the boys-becoming-men left to live in caves where they hunted and killed at least one lion, for three years. Contemporarily I think this practice has lessened somewhat and while both Peter and Clinton (both in early 20's) had killed a lion, with a spear, it is less prevalant than before and the duration in the cave in shorter. But, when the men emerge, they are Maasi warriors ready to start families and raise cattle and goats of their own.
Oh yeah, in preparation for the circumsicion, the young boys will burn themselves with things in order to work up tolerance to pain so thewy do not flinch during the proceedure.
Poligamy is also practiced amongst the Maasi, although it varies from person to person. Many men only have one wife while others have four. We had the opportunity to have candid discussions with our 20 year old warriors and when prompted, both replied they would only want one wife. Peter "Because more than one would be too much trouble." And Clinton "Because he could only share his love with one woman." I will leave it to you to chuckle with that.
The warrior/guides gave us weapons training using their spears and congas (wooden instruments used to finish off the animals) . They also took us on medicinal plant hikes, showing us what plants to use for what. Both men studied biology or environmental science at a neighboring university (another new develoment within their culture).
Interesting note: cattle are considered higher up in the heirarchy than women. Now, I have stated this VERY simply and it is more complex by far, but as is cattle their ABSOLUTE livelyhood in some way, in the past that makes sense.
I am not condoning it, don't freak out :)
Ok, so I bet you have been waiting for the womens story huh?........stay tuned!
I gotta get off this computer!
Please write me a comment, I love them.
Love,
Chelsea
Quick note: I am in an internet cafe on Lamu right now and there are two young Norweigan boys who are always in here playing hours worth of interactive internet games everyday, they make me laugh...
But to back track a bit, the Maasi Mara...southwestern Kenya, home to big game and large ethnic groups who are either pastoralists or small scale agriculturalists. All throughout the academic course we were hosted by a Canadian non-profit organization called Me to We/Free the Children. They build schools and hospitals in rural Kenya and other locations across the globe. So one of their sites is in the Maasi Mara in a community of Kipsigi (sp?) peoples. Kipsigi are small scale farmers whose neighbors surrounding them in the hills are the Maasi people.
While we spent 11 days in the Mara doing our course work and helping build a clinic in the Kipsigi community we had two Maasi guides with us, Peter and Clinton (whose favorite music is Celine Dion to the delite of all the Canadians I was traveling with, Celine is HUGE in Africa-even the rural hills). The Maasi are rather famous globally, they are pastoralists who wear the red blankets as a dress (men and women, a lot of men in Kenya wear skirts) and a delicacy of the Maasi is mixing milk with cows blood. This concoction (sworn up and down by Peter and Clinton to be wonderful) provides them with sufficient calcium and protein.
Note: I have been very hesitant to write to a western audience about the customs of the Maasi or Kipsigi because I fear an instant reaction of judgemet from the readers. I have decided what I feel is ethically within my boundaries to share and I would please ask of you to remember the radical difference in lifestyles, history, and worlds you and the ethnic peoples of Kenya live in. That is not to say that some things are not supposed to stretch you out of your comfort zone, that has been happening to me all this trip, but as you read try to conceptualize it in a space before judgement, floating in wonder instead.
Ok, so milk and blood, other initiation rituals are coming to age processes for men and women. For the men, around 16 the bottom front tooth is removed (with no antestisia) by the father from a method of cutting the gums and pulling the tooth. This practice is meant to mark the member of the tribe as Maasi wherever they go.
Another, and very important ritual, is the male circumsicion which happens around 15-18 years old. After this ritual the boys are considered men and endowed with all of the rights given in manhood. Including taking a wife, sex, and providing for a family. So the circumcision is done without the aid of pain killers, and a clause in the whole thing, is that the boys are not allowed the slightest flinch or wince during the proceedure. If they do they will be austricized from the society indefinetly as cowards and have a hard time taking a wife.
In the past, after the circumsicion ritual the boys-becoming-men left to live in caves where they hunted and killed at least one lion, for three years. Contemporarily I think this practice has lessened somewhat and while both Peter and Clinton (both in early 20's) had killed a lion, with a spear, it is less prevalant than before and the duration in the cave in shorter. But, when the men emerge, they are Maasi warriors ready to start families and raise cattle and goats of their own.
Oh yeah, in preparation for the circumsicion, the young boys will burn themselves with things in order to work up tolerance to pain so thewy do not flinch during the proceedure.
Poligamy is also practiced amongst the Maasi, although it varies from person to person. Many men only have one wife while others have four. We had the opportunity to have candid discussions with our 20 year old warriors and when prompted, both replied they would only want one wife. Peter "Because more than one would be too much trouble." And Clinton "Because he could only share his love with one woman." I will leave it to you to chuckle with that.
The warrior/guides gave us weapons training using their spears and congas (wooden instruments used to finish off the animals) . They also took us on medicinal plant hikes, showing us what plants to use for what. Both men studied biology or environmental science at a neighboring university (another new develoment within their culture).
Interesting note: cattle are considered higher up in the heirarchy than women. Now, I have stated this VERY simply and it is more complex by far, but as is cattle their ABSOLUTE livelyhood in some way, in the past that makes sense.
I am not condoning it, don't freak out :)
Ok, so I bet you have been waiting for the womens story huh?........stay tuned!
I gotta get off this computer!
Please write me a comment, I love them.
Love,
Chelsea
Friday, June 12, 2009
June 12th...
Hello All! I apologize for the long delay between postings. I hope I still have your attention. I don't know where to begin with the last cople of weeks. The weeks were spent finishing the academic program I came to participate in. That included visiting two other spots in Kenya, one the Masi Mara (rural pastorial/agricultural land where indigenous ethnic grops have lived for a longh time) and Mombasa (a coastal town where we concluded our studies).
To catch up a bit, all in all the academic program hosted by the University of Toronto's Peace and Conflict studies institute was an incredible program. Not to mention the group of students and Professor was excellent, we were able to be exposed to so many unique opportunities. We visited and had meeting with employees fom the Institute for Security Studies, the University of Nairobi (where we enjoyed a lecture and conversation afterward with a Kenyan professor and her students, a public lecture hosted by scholars addressing the post-conflict violence of 2007 and how to bring a national peace to a nation divided by ethnic backgrounds (but please don't take that statement a simply as I wrote it, no conflict is simply an "ancient hatred" issue, I don't beleive those even exist). We also visited the International Peace and support training center where they train military personel from all over the world to be peacekeepers deployed by the UN. We were visited by a representative from the Greenbelt Movement which was originally a women empowerment organization that facilitated these objectives through reforestation projects with rural women in Kenya. There is an amazing book about the founder of the Greenbelt Movement called Unbowed that I would recommend to anyone interested. (Breath!) It's so much and I am not even through with our activities yet!
We were also visited by representatives of the Millenium Village Project founded at my alma matta, Columbia University, which is a global economic and sustainable project to eradicate global poverty, you could goolge that too if interested. There's more oh so more. And even with my inadequate rush through description you can understand the notion that, in my eyes, the program was incredibly valuable for my education and future endeavours. In a way it brought my professional dreams into reality, meeting the people who fill those positins already, while it empowered me to believe in myself that I was capable of dong such things.
Well, so the program ended on the 10th of June and I began traveling with a lovely new friend from the program Craig. We both have two weeks to finish our final 15 page papers (which will be interesting with no computers amongst us) and those two weeks are the exact timframe I have between the upcoming human rights program in Rwanda and when Craig returns to Canada. So at present we are traveling up the coast to a town called Lamu (a world cultural heritage site). Lamu is an island with no vehicles and plenty of donkeys to make up for it. \We are looking forward to spending our time there relaxing and finishing our coursework. I am very happy to have a colleague and friend to travel with while getting adjusted to not being couched in the study abroad program for my every need anymore.
Side note: I am going to write a seperate blog about where I stayed in rural Kenya because it was immersed in a community of ethnic groups who practice female circumcision still. I am sorting out how to present this experience to you that is fairly partisan and also respects the privacy of their communities.
On another note, my group helped to build a community clinic for this community by digging a trench to lay the foundation in. That day was very rewarding.
And don't fret! Pictures are coming! (oh yeah I was 20 feet from a lion on our safari) But I must use the internet at public places thaty charge and most are much too slow to upload pics.....I also must prioritize during the next weeks in spending my internet money on research for my paper, ahhhhhhhhh!
All of that said, I am really happy to update you this far AND Craig and I split a cell phone so if anyone is interested they can ring at: 254 710 588 930
Love,
Chelsea
To catch up a bit, all in all the academic program hosted by the University of Toronto's Peace and Conflict studies institute was an incredible program. Not to mention the group of students and Professor was excellent, we were able to be exposed to so many unique opportunities. We visited and had meeting with employees fom the Institute for Security Studies, the University of Nairobi (where we enjoyed a lecture and conversation afterward with a Kenyan professor and her students, a public lecture hosted by scholars addressing the post-conflict violence of 2007 and how to bring a national peace to a nation divided by ethnic backgrounds (but please don't take that statement a simply as I wrote it, no conflict is simply an "ancient hatred" issue, I don't beleive those even exist). We also visited the International Peace and support training center where they train military personel from all over the world to be peacekeepers deployed by the UN. We were visited by a representative from the Greenbelt Movement which was originally a women empowerment organization that facilitated these objectives through reforestation projects with rural women in Kenya. There is an amazing book about the founder of the Greenbelt Movement called Unbowed that I would recommend to anyone interested. (Breath!) It's so much and I am not even through with our activities yet!
We were also visited by representatives of the Millenium Village Project founded at my alma matta, Columbia University, which is a global economic and sustainable project to eradicate global poverty, you could goolge that too if interested. There's more oh so more. And even with my inadequate rush through description you can understand the notion that, in my eyes, the program was incredibly valuable for my education and future endeavours. In a way it brought my professional dreams into reality, meeting the people who fill those positins already, while it empowered me to believe in myself that I was capable of dong such things.
Well, so the program ended on the 10th of June and I began traveling with a lovely new friend from the program Craig. We both have two weeks to finish our final 15 page papers (which will be interesting with no computers amongst us) and those two weeks are the exact timframe I have between the upcoming human rights program in Rwanda and when Craig returns to Canada. So at present we are traveling up the coast to a town called Lamu (a world cultural heritage site). Lamu is an island with no vehicles and plenty of donkeys to make up for it. \We are looking forward to spending our time there relaxing and finishing our coursework. I am very happy to have a colleague and friend to travel with while getting adjusted to not being couched in the study abroad program for my every need anymore.
Side note: I am going to write a seperate blog about where I stayed in rural Kenya because it was immersed in a community of ethnic groups who practice female circumcision still. I am sorting out how to present this experience to you that is fairly partisan and also respects the privacy of their communities.
On another note, my group helped to build a community clinic for this community by digging a trench to lay the foundation in. That day was very rewarding.
And don't fret! Pictures are coming! (oh yeah I was 20 feet from a lion on our safari) But I must use the internet at public places thaty charge and most are much too slow to upload pics.....I also must prioritize during the next weeks in spending my internet money on research for my paper, ahhhhhhhhh!
All of that said, I am really happy to update you this far AND Craig and I split a cell phone so if anyone is interested they can ring at: 254 710 588 930
Love,
Chelsea
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