Georgia Women Speak of Poor Conditions for Kenyan Women

Young girls are married off by the age of 15, many to men almost 30 years their senior. Sixty-nine percent of women are considered literate and less than 12 percent continue their education past eighth grade. Mothers walk up to eight miles per day to retrieve the freshest water for their families from still polluted streams and rivers. The women of the Maasai tribe in Nairobi, Kenya live lives of conflict, hardship, and burden.

Female leaders from around Athens and the University of Georgia led a discussion Tuesday afternoon at the school’s Visual Arts Center concerning life in the Maasai tribe. Sponsored by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government International Center, the discussion focused on a recent two-week trip taken by ten Georgia women to Kenya.

The discussion, titled “Women of the Maasai: Empowerment and Networks,” highlighted the rough cultural expectations and quality of life for a woman in Nairobi. Speakers included the Athens Mayor, Heidi Davison, a Stay Safe activist, Joan Prittie, and Njeri Marekia-Cleaveland, a public service assistant from the Carl Vinson Institute.

Throughout their discussion, many of the women voiced the conflict of changing the Maasai way of life without threatening to change the culture.

“It’s hard to do,” says Marekia-Cleaveland. “They don’t want to change their culture, even if it’s for the betterment of their life.”

Marekia-Cleaveland went on to describe the constant struggle among women within Maasai society. With men “wandering around with their cattle all day”, she says, the women are left with the hardships of caring for the family.

She described chores such as milking cows and creating beadwork. The women will fulfill both chores, but since the man is the one allowed to sell them to factories and markets, he will pocket the money.

In addition, the woman will take care of the land, children, and food—further taxing her and increasing her hardships.

Joan Prittie, who is also a public administration and policy professor at UGA, says that it is hard for many Americans to understand why these women have yet to escape their circumstances. She says that to consider their status, you must also consider their culture.

“There is a certain level of accepted violence,” she says.

Many young girls are subject to early marriage, some as soon as 10 years old, and Female Genitalia Mutilation (FGM)—both are illegal in Kenya. The Maasai culture deems a woman pure once she has gone through FGM, a procedure that risks her life and makes childbirth more complex, risking the life of the unborn.

Many members of the 25-person audience gasped and suddenly raised their hands to their mouths in terror. Prittie responded to the shock by claiming, “They either have to face this direct violence or become secondary citizens.”