WP: A Place Where Women Rule

[Pirate Smile]

A Place Where Women Rule
All-Female Village in Kenya Is Indication Of Burgeoning Feminism Across Africa

By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 9, 2005; Page A01

UMOJA, Kenya --

-snip-
Ten years ago, a group of women established the village of Umjoa, which means unity in Swahili, on an unwanted field of dry grasslands. The women said they had been raped and, as a result, abandoned by their husbands, who claimed they had shamed their community.

-snip-
What started as a group of homeless women looking for a place of their own became a successful and happy village. About three dozen women live here, and run a cultural center and camping site for tourists visiting the adjacent Samburu National Reserve. Umjoa has flourished, eventually attracting so many women seeking help that they even hired men to haul firewood, traditionally women's work.

-snip-
But the women felt empowered with the revenue from the camping site and their cultural center, where they sell crafts. They were able to send their children to school for the first time, eat well and reject male demands for their daughters' circumcision and marriage.

They became so respected that troubled women, some beaten, some trying to get divorced, started showing up in this little village in northern Kenya. Lolosoli was even invited by the United Nations to attend a recent world conference on gender empowerment in New York.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/08/AR2005070801775.html

[seriousstan]

Change will happen. This tribal B.S. will die.

The whole idea of women as property will die, I only hope it is in my lifetime. I especially like the part about them taking an unwanted field of dry grasslands and opening a cultural center and camping site for tourists.

You are always the employee until you are the boss.

[Pirate Smile]

1. more - political movement beginning.

"In a mix of African women's gumption and the trickling in of influences from the outside world, a version of feminism has grown progressively alongside extreme levels of sexual violence, the battle against HIV-AIDS, and the aftermath of African wars, all of which have changed the role of women in surprising ways.

A package of new laws has been presented to Kenya's parliament, intended to give women unprecedented rights to refuse marriage proposals, fight sexual harassment in the workplace, reject genital mutilation and to prosecute rape, an act so frequent that Kenyan leaders call it the nation's biggest human rights issue. The most severe penalty, known as the "chemical castration bill," would castrate repeatedly convicted rapists and send them to prison for life.

In neighboring Uganda, thousands of women are rallying this month for the Domestic Relations Bill, which would give them specific legal rights if their husbands take a second wife, in part because of fear of HIV infection."

[Moderator]

2. Great article, but not Breaking News

:-)

[Pirate Smile]

3. You're right. I hope it gets one more vote so it doesn't get buried.

[Gloria]

4. Voted!! I think we should do that here in the States---

move into hospitable states and RULE!

[silverweb]

5. Fantastic!

I have to admit, though, that I'm somewhat amazed this village hasn't been attacked, raided, and destroyed by men.

May they continue to grow and flourish, spreading hope, courage, and knowledge to women everywhere!

[Pirate Smile]

6. Me too. I'm surprised they just haven't killed them. I'd love to see

Rebecca Lolosoli. She must be amazing. She sounds like a born leader. Fearless.

[silverweb]

10. We need more like her.

It sounds like she's raising up a new fearless generation of women in that village -- and that can only be a good thing.

[scarletlib]

7. Personally I think we would all be bette off if women ran the

world for the next couple of hundred years. Let's face it, men have been running it for most of our recorded history--they have fucked it up big time. War, Violence, Abuse, Domination --seem to be how men like to run things. Why cooperate if you can kill or take by force?
This is the ongoing legacy of patriarchy--paternalism, racism,violence. Patriarchy needs to be rooted out of our society. Neither sex needs to dominate the other.

(Not a blanket condemnation of all men--my husband to name just one is a very enlightened non-violent liberal guy)

edit-typos

[Demeter]

8. Sounds Like My Co-Op

Our community is so dominated by single women of all ages and states of relationships, and the board is all female. Most of the committees are female, and there are relatively few men even living here. Our crime rate is nearly zero; our grounds are well-kept, our lives are safe and peaceful.

The last animal left to be domesticated is Man.

[silverweb]

9. Heh.

"The last animal left to be domesticated is Man."

Isn't that the truth!!!

:eyes:

[Bruce McAuley]

14. Some of us ARE domesticated. We are known as gentlemen and princes.

The rest are frogs. Send them back to the Barracks for re-education and domestication training, IMO.

Bruce

[silverweb]

16. I stand corrected, Sir!

Yes, there are Gentlemen and Princes -- but far too few, I'm sorry to say.

Please forgive me for unintentionally broad-brushing "men" as part of the Amphiba.

:D

[spooky3]

11. Thanks, but a small complaint about the article...

What does the author mean by "daughters' circumcision"? If she's referring to a removal of the clitoris, that is far more invasive and not comparable to the removal of foreskin, which does not substantially interfere with sexual functioning. While I'm not advocating or even commenting on the practice regarding men, calling these practices by the same name minimizes the barbarism of the practice toward women. "Mutilation" would be more accurate.

[bloom]

12. that's cool...eom

[WhiteTara]

13. Jean Shinoda Bolen believes

that the world will be healed by women's circles. The act of being in a circle rather than the leader in front, up high and the rest people lined up below is more conducive to real problem solving. Here's to the women of Umjoa
:yourock:

[puddycat]

15. Terrific! Perhaps the women of Pakistan could do that

There is another article on DU about a woman in Pakistan who had her feet chopped off after being accused of "bad character" and remember the one who was gang raped? These are "honor and shame" killings/tortures. These women need a haven. Down with tribalism. In some ways tribalism is even more destructive than racism because its harder to penetrate and stop.