Dancing with the Maasai

9 December 2009

Today was the first day of a series of village visits that we have planned over the next two weeks and it was a great start. Today we went to a village in the foothills of Meru called Matudumomye, but there were also women there from a village called Elakunoto.

When we first arrived the women were singing and dancing and bouncing their ceremonial shangas up and down. They called us into the center of the circle and put a shanga on me and tried to teach me how to dance with it. It was really fun, but really hard. I need to practice a little bit more (or a lot!) before I have the skills that they do J.

After the dancing and introductions we went into the local church and presented. The women were extremely interested and asked TONS of questions! We talked about so many different things and the women didn’t feel like they had to sensor themselves around us. We talked about menstruation, pregnancy, nutrition, female circumcision, STDs, AIDS, stigma and I also gave a condom demonstration. Mama told us later that she had never heard women talk so openly as they did with us. She said it had a lot to do with the fact that there were no men around to intimidate them and keep them quiet. She said that if men are around and hear them asking questions and talking about these topics that often get in trouble and can be shunned.

When we first brought up female circumcision there was quite a bit of unrest in the group and they seemed very uncomfortable. We decided to cut our discussion about the topic short so that we didn’t lose our credibility with them, but they still asked several questions about it. Mama told us later that the reason they were restless was because they were nervous that we were going to take down their names and turn them in to the government, even though they all claim to have stopped the practice. Tanzania recently made FC illegal, but the government made no attempt to tell the villages about the new law. Mama tries to spread the word through her work with the women’s groups, but it is hard to reach everyone. Every woman we were presenting to had been circumcised and about seven of them raised their hands when Mama asked which of them performed the ceremony. We asked much resistance there was to the practice being made illegal, but Mama said that for the most part they all adhere to it very strictly and did so as soon as they knew it was illegal. This obviously surprised me and I am not sure how common that reaction is, but I think the groups that Mama works with are more inclined to react that way because they are learning about their rights and health and are beginning to be empowered by such things. I am sure that more remote villages, if even aware of the law, clinging much more strongly to this cultural ceremony.

After the presentation, to say thank you, the women danced and sang more and kind of ceremoniously gave me a necklace and Zach a bracelet, putting them on us while singing. It was very gracious and unexpected surprise for us, and things we will always have and appreciate. We plan to go back to the village again in January and will meet with a group of men instead, which the women were also very excited about. As important as it is to teach and empower the women, with cultural tradition of patriarchy still very strong, it is equally important to teach the men about these issues so that hopefully changes will be made as a whole village.

I had such a great time today and I can’t wait to see the villages that we will visit over the next weeks and months. I am finally feeling like we are getting to do what we came here to do in the first place and I’m loving it.

(This picture is of me dancing with the Maasai women before the presentation. The white shangas are worn for celebrations and ceremonies, which they treated our visit as such. It was very humbling.)

Written by Whitney