The Power of Mary's Passion

A child-mother in Longido.

I woke up this morning with the image of a very small Maasai girl in mind. She could have been any one of hundreds of young girls in Longido or Kimokouwa. And she could have been in high school because traditionally raised Maasai girls can be very small in stature. While there are many factors that contribute to the size of children, one is the practice of FGM or Female Genital Mutilation.

FGM is a cultural practice performed all over Africa, not just in the TEMBO project area. It is considered to be a right of passage for girls, just as male circumcision is for boys. Education will and is changing the frequency of this harmful ritual being performed on girls before marriage. It is another of the many benefits of formal education in Tanzania: so long as a girl is attending school, early marriage will be delayed and so will activities surrounding child marriages including FGM and early pregnancy.

Penina chose education and no FGM for Naana, her daughter.

I have sat in dark smoky huts with very young girls and women, holding newborn babies that were so tiny and struggling to survive. I know a woman who had twins and was so physically small herself that she could not care for both babies. She made a choice to keep one and gave the other baby away. Babies are born tiny and malnourished because mothers severely restrict the amount of food they eat during pregnancy. This is to limit the extreme pain they will experience delivering their babies as a result of FGM. It is one of the terrible consequences that will linger for a lifetime.

Mary works for change from within the community.

Mary Laiser, TEMBO Education Coordinator and Community Facilitator, has come full circle from being a Maasai woman who believed circumcision was a woman's right to being one of the staunchest advocates against FGM. Mary speaks openly about being circumcised herself. She also made it very publicly known that her own daughter, Happiness, would never experience FGM. Happiness would, and did, have an open ceremony attended by dozens of villagers, including public officials. It was a beautiful ritual filled with meaning, but there was no cutting. Since that day five years ago Mary has facilitated the same ritual for other families so that the right of passage is preserved and so is the health and safety of the girl. Slowly, attitudes are changing.

Women like Mary are important change agents in the community. Mary is trusted by the Maasai community because she is part of it. Her voice and her experience matters. I have said before that the modern world is at the door step of the Maasai. If their culture and traditions are to survive the Maasai must adapt. They do not have the luxury of time and the slow progression through stages that other peoples experienced before the spread of technology. Decisions need to be made now that will determine if there will even be a Maasai culture in the future.

It would be a terrible mistake to conclude that because of harmful practices like FGM the Maasai are "backward" and should be forced to abandon their traditions and assimilated into a western system of values and behaviours. For there is so much more, so much richness that would be an even greater loss if the Maasai culture ceased to exist. I am thinking about things like a deep connection to the land and a respect for the elders in the community - things that our western culture so often loses touch with in its race toward industrial superiority and individuality.

Primary school girls learn from Mary that their voice must be heard.