No country for men: In 1990, 15 women founded a village for rape survivors. Nearly three decades later, there's still not a man in sight. Bhekisisa_MG reports.
Jane says she was raped by three men wearing Gurkha uniforms. She was herding her husband’s goats and sheep, and carrying firewood, when she was attacked. “I felt so ashamed and could not talk about it to other people. They did terrible things to me,” says Jane, her eyes alive with pain.
Lolosoli is tall and powerfully built, her shaven head adorned with the traditional Samburu beaded ornaments. I am told by a number of the women in Umoja that Lolosoli has faced repeated threats and attacks from local men since setting up the village, but she is undeterred.
Memusi is the official greeter. She walks towards me, the beads adorning her head and neck making soft clicking noises in the gentle breeze. She ran away from her husband after just one day of marriage, in 1998. “I was traded for cows by my father when I was 11 years old,” she tells me with the help of an interpreter. “My husband was 57.”Judia, a talkative, confident 19-year-old, came to Umoja aged 13, having run away from home to avoid being sold into marriage.
There is still suspicion of the village in the neighbourhood. In the next village, Samuel, the village elder, tells me that “the majority of men have three to four wives in this village”. He is chatting with a small group of men holding wooden spears and dressed in colourful tartan. They seem happy to talk about Umoja and become animated when I ask how the women manage to cope in such a male-dominated society.
I ask how Seita knew about Umoja. “I heard of a women’s community from gossip in my old village,” she tells me and says she was happy from the first moment she arrived. “I was given a goat. I was given water. I started to feel safe and secure.” Ntipaiyo, stooped from age and hard work, her ribs visible through her colourful clothes, has been at the village for 15 years. “I came here because of problems with my husband,” she tells me. “The British army got me when I was collecting firewood. There were three of them. They pushed me to the ground. Since that day, I have always felt pain in my chest whenever I remember.
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