A site to behold as Maasai ditch FGM ritual to embrace change

Kilindi. For the casual observer, the Maasai young girls who were dressed in their best shining ceremonial garbs, could well be performing the same old traditional rite of passage that ends with the Female Genital Cut (FGC) as they were taken one after another from the traditional dance with ‘el Moran’ to the special house where in the past the circumciser was.

Not this time; the Maasai of Lesioi and Elerai villages in Kilindi District were poised to go down into history books, breaking with a long time tradition and doing away with the dreaded FGC with a loud noise to the world.

On a cool afternoon, that was blessed with showers, (one Maasai describing them as tears of mothers over the agony of their daughters), Lesioi and Elerai villages in Kilindi District were performing rites which could change the whole way the Maasai approach the traditional rite of passage into womanhood.

They allowed their daughters, 200 in Elerai and 55 in Lesioi, to pass the rite without facing the knife. In the past, the ceremony would have been the time for severe pain or even death and silent mourning.

“This is actually the same traditional rite as it was, but now with a difference. In the past, they would have been sent to a matron’s house where traditional circumcisers would be waiting with their knives. This time around, however, they are coming out happily to join their fellows in celebrations without the pain which sometimes resulted into death,” said George Saitew, a Project Field Officer with the Amref Health Africa.

Amref is executing a project called Alternative Rites of Passage (ARP) in Kilindi District with financial support from Amref Netherlands. The project is also being implemented among the Maasai community of Kenya in Magadi, Samburu and Loitokitok areas.

After being in the limelight for clinging to FGC, the Maasai of Kilindi District in Tanga Region, last week, finally entered the annals of history when they did what was thought to be impossible in the past – performing the traditional rite without the knife.

The epoch making ceremonies were held just one month after the launching of the Sh1.4 billion project at Lusane Village in the district.

The break with the deep rooted tradition did not happen overnight, but through intensive education which convinced the Maasai community of Elerai and Lesioi villages in Kilindi District to voluntarily allow the 255 young girls to become the first Maasai girls to undergo the traditional rite of passage into womanhood without undergoing the female cut (FGM).

This time the training included a Sexual and Reproductive Health training from trained medical staff.

A traditional elder and head of the Lesioi Boma, Simon Mang’unde, declared that this was the end of FGM. “My daughters would never face the female cut again as long as I live,” said Mang’unde. Another man, the chief Laigwanan Simon Ngushane, declared the same for Elerai Village, saying he decided to be the first to hold the ARP celebrations at his Boma to show the way.

Another elder, Kirutoro Mokoyo summed up by saying that the decision had moved them from the low to a higher level of development.

“Even these ceremonies are changing. In the past there was a lot of sexual intercourse among community members, but now people are only dancing and eating,” said Mokoyo.

“Today, I am the happiest person here. This has freed my mind from the pain I have been forced to endure by tradition. It is not them (girls) who want this tradition but us adults. The education I received from Amref has shown me this is not correct-we have wasted so much blood of innocent young girls,” said Mama Sabina Lucas, a 70-year-old Maasai former circumciser (Ngariba).

Mama Sabina was among several members of the Maasai community, including several elders (Laigwanan), local midwives (Ngariba), religious leaders and youths (Moran) who were sent to Kenya to observe the execution of the project in Loitokitok, Magadi and Samburu.

She said it was a special day as life would no longer be the same. “I have spent a larger part of my life cutting the flesh of young girls”, whereby according to her, with no tangible benefits apart from honouring a tradition that traumatises young girls.

Speaking at the ceremony, an Amref Netherlands official, Ms Marianne van Lubek hailed the change as a sign of wisdom describing them as real change agents for being the first parents who opted for this new ceremony.

“This occasion is even more special because it is the first alternative rite of passage celebration in Tanzania. We (Amref Netherlands) are in fact proud to be part of this transition,” she said.

Ms Van Lubek said that changing tradition was not easy especially for communities such as the Maasai who still live strongly according to what she termed as ‘your mostly beautiful cultural traditions. She added that she trusted the Maasai would continue to conserve their culture something the project is adhering to.

A representative from the Kenya project where Tanzanian counterparts and representatives of the Maasai community from Kilindi went for a study tour, Peter Ngutai, said the speed of the change was unbelievable but emphasised the need to follow up on the girls to ensure that they attend and finish their studies.

He emphasised that it would be better to make the community know that the young girls are not just being spared the circumciser’s knife, but they must go to school instead of being married at that tender age.

“Why don’t you wait for the girls to finish their studies so that you can get more cows and in fact she would be able to give you the cows herself,” asked Ngutai

A beautiful Maasai girl, Nice Teng’ete, who is said to have run away from the knife and now appointed as ambassador for change said that although the project has already been implemented in Kenya, the event in Kilindi was symbolic of the Maasai community all over East Africa because the Maasai of Tanzania are custodians of the Maasai culture.

She also emphasised the need to make a follow up training to ensure that they know what all those girls were doing. “I am pleased to see a lot of commitment from all groups but please, do something in education such as sponsorship,” she said.

The project is doing just that. It is sponsoring 30 Maasai girls who are training to become nurses at Muheza District Designated Hospital and Nursing School.

Another representative from Kenya, Charles Leshore, called the event a new dawn for the girls and the community and even the rain that appeared suddenly at the event showed that the event had received blessings from the elders and God.

“It has happened every where this ARP was undertaken and the elders say the rain is the tears of mothers who are forced to suffer silently to see their daughters suffer under pain with some even dying,” said Leshore.

Another officer from Kenya, Josephine Sanayo Lesiamon, the ARP Samburu Project Manager, expressed happiness and relief at seeing parents, especially, mothers give their assent to break from the past and urged Maasai communities all over East Africa to change and abandon cultures which were not useful.

Amref has been working with Maasai communities in Kajiado County since the early 1960s. The project builds on a foundation, which has been prepared over a period of approximately six years since 2007 in which Amref has been working with Maasai communities on issues related to sexuality.

According to Amref Health Africa Kilindi Project Manager, Eliya Msegu , Amref has been a facilitator in organizing the communities, in raising awareness through their cultural structures and decision making processes, and in promoting equality of girls by providing them with access to information, skills and services.

“It is through an exchange between the Maasai in Magadi and Samburu in Samburu that the communities raised the demand to actively tackle the harmful traditional practice,” said Msegu adding that it was this community drive approach which lies at the core of the project success.

FGC is common amongst ethnic groups in Kilindi, where statisticts show that more than 90 per cent of girls will have undergone FGC at the age of 15 years. However, NGOs intervention made communities practice FGC secretly since the laws of the land also criminalize it. Amref has had a presence in eight of the 20 wards for the last five years.

“The question of how to abandon FGC featured at the 2009 Maasai Leaders’ meeting and Maasai girls started to run away from FGC,” said Msegu who added that each the district organizes ‘Zero Tolerance Day for FGC.

Magadi, Kenya, hosted the first community led Alternative Rites of Passage (ARP) Project in 2011 with 234 girls graduating.

In 2013 Amref Kenya and Tanzania through the support of Amref Netherlands and contributions from the Dutch Postcode Lottery started implementing a programme called ‘Up-scaling ARP in Kenya and Tanzania: let girls become women without the cut.

“The programme builds upon already established community structures within concurrent programmes: Unite for Body Rights in Kilindi (Tanzania), Magadi and Loitokitok (Kenya) and the maternal Newborn and Child Health project in Samburu (Kenya),” said Msegu.

The project aims at contributing to the abandonment of FGC in Magadi, Samburu, Loitokitok and Kilindi; have girls who can freely discuss FGC in their communities and have cultural, religious and political leaders who can embrace ARP and denounce FGC by 2015.

In Kenya, so far 2,140 girls have undergone Alternative Rites of Passage since 2011.

Whatever the merits of the project are, one thing is obvious as Kenyan representative Leshore put it saying that six months after the Tanzanian community members visited Kenya Maasai communities have shown that the Maasai community without FGC is possible after all.