Web Desk(February 27, 2018): In a world ruled by the male dominant mid sets. have you ever think of a place without men existence? if no than Take a look at a village where women spend their lives freely on their own choices.
There’s an African village in Kenya where only women are allowed, and its inhabitants have a very good reason for wanting it that way.
Only women are allowed to live in Umoja. Julie Bindel visits the Kenyan village that began as a refuge for survivors of sexual violence – and discovers its inhabitants are thriving in the single-sex community.
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Video Courtesy: Insh
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.
She is 38 but looks considerably older. She shows me a deep scar on her leg where she was cut by stones when she was pushed to the ground. In a quiet, hesitant voice she continues her story. “I eventually told my husband’s mother that I was sick because I had to explain the injuries and my depression. I was given traditional medicine, but it did not help. When she told my husband [about the rape], he beat me with a cane. So I disappeared and came here with my children.”
It is a shelter for the women who have survived the hatred shown by the men who think women as their property.
The village was founded in 1990 by a group of 15 women who were survivors of rape by local British soldiers. Umoja’s population has now expanded to include any women escaping child marriage, FGM Female Genital Mutilation domestic violence, and rape – all of which are cultural norms among the Samburu.
Rebecca Lolosoli The Founder Of Umoja
Rebecca Lolosoli is the founder of Umoja and the village matriarch. She was in hospital recovering from a beating by a group of men when she came up with the idea of a women-only community. The beating was an attempt to teach her a lesson for daring to speak to women in her village about their rights. The Samburu are closely related to the Maasai tribe, speaking a similar language. They usually live in groups of five to 10 families and are semi-nomadic pastoralists. Their culture is deeply patriarchal. At village meetings, men sit in an inner circle to discuss important village issues, while the women sit on the outside, only occasionally allowed to express an opinion. Umoja’s first members all came from the isolated Samburu villages dotted across the Rift valley. Since then, women and girls who hear of the refuge come and learn how to trade, raise their children and live without fear of male violence and discrimination.
“If a girl is married at an early age, that girl will not be a competent parent. Giving birth they face a lot of challenges: they rupture, they bleed because they are young,” says Milka, head of the academy school built on the land owned by the Umoja women which are open to children from surrounding villages. “Even performing their duties, their chores, it is hard for them. They are thrown into taking care of animals.”
Under the “tree of speech”, where the women gather to make decisions, I speak to several residents keen to tell their stories.
“I have learned to do things here that women are normally forbidden to do,” says Nagusi, a middle-aged woman with five children. “I am allowed to make my own money, and when a tourist buys some of my beads I am so proud.”
Many of the women tell me they cannot imagine living with a man again after they have been living in Umoja. Towards the end of my visit, I meet Mary, 34, who tells me she was sold to a man of 80 for a herd of cows when she was 16 years old. “I don’t want to ever leave this supportive community of women,” she says.
Mary shows me a handful of dried beans that she will be cooking soon for dinner. “We don’t have much, but in Umoja, I have everything I need.”
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