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Mary
My
name is Mary Lemunga.
I was born May 12th, l986 in a village
called Kombo, in Same District.
I am from an extended family, whereby my father
has five wives and twenty-nine children.
My mother is the first wife and has six children.
My mother had 8 cows, 5 goats, 3 sheep and 6
children alive but 2 passed away because of malaria.
My first step-mother has 6 cows, 6 goats and 5
sheep, and 8 children.
My second step-mother has 5 cows, 6 goats, 3
sheep and 6 children.
My third step-mother has 4 cows, 3
goats, 5 sheep and 6 children and the last one
has 2 cows, 5 goats, 1 sheep and 3 children.
They all live in their own Maasai houses (huts).
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According
to my culture, we have age groups and division of labor.
That means young boys that are 5-15 years go to
find areas for pasture and water for the cattle.
They include “morani” who are about 15-35
years old. Since
I am the first born of my parents, who don’t have
young boys and I was in primary school I had the duty of
school and grazing the cattle.
It meant I was going about 30 kilometers per day.
Finally I exchanged the duty with my young
sister.
Now
my sister is married.
Another one is in Form I and is sponsored by
Emusoi. Another
one does not go to school and my mother told me that
this year she will be married although she is 12 years
old. My
youngest sister and brother are still young.
Lucy is about 6 years old and Meshack is about 3
years old.
In
my family, a woman does not have any right to speak out
about things with her husband and when she does wrong,
my father usually beats her.
All in all, this is my life and my family.
My
parents, especially my father were against my education
because my father had already received twenty cows for
my dowry (in Maasai Culture, a girls child has no right
to be educated. She
is considered as a commodity to be exchanged for cows).
But my cousin and friend, Sifa, who was being
sponsored by Emusoi, helped me request sponsorship at
Emusoi to continue my education.
I was able to join Emusoi in 2003.
I finished my advanced level studies in 2007.
This
year I will begin studies at the Newman Institute of
Social Work in order to fulfill my goal to work and to
help my indigenous community which as been marginalized
in all spheres of life; economically, socially and
politically. I
especially want to address gender balance issues which
are not considered at all in my Maasai society.
Women have no power to voice anything.
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Nademwa
My
name is Nademwa Orpuria.
I was born in Ketumbeine Village in Arusha Region
in 1991. I
am the fourth of ten children. I began primary school in
1998. When I
began school, I had my both parents, but when I reached
Class three, my father died.
This was in 2001.
My father had 5 wives and my mother was the last
one. When my
father died, my mother was taken care of by the son of
another wife. He
was the first-born son of my father.
When my mother’s livestock, that is goats
together with cows, were all gone, my mother was told
that she must depend only on herself to get food for her
children and herself.
Therefore, my mother returned to live near her
father. We
lived close by as neighbors, but my grandfather did not
help us at all.
The
thing that my mother did to get food for her family was
to make beadwork and to sell it.
Truly, this was hard work because it took a long
time to make the beads and she got only a small amount
of money for them. This
income was only enough for food and not even enough to
educate her children.
Therefore, we lived a life of hardship at home.
The
first born in our family is a girl.
She went to primary school and when she finished
she was married off.
The second born did not even go to primary
school. The
third born, a boy, went to primary school and when he
was in Class 7, he ran away from school.
I am the fourth born and when I finished Primary
school in 2004, I stayed at home to wait for my results.
When they were announced, I saw that I passed but
I was told that there was no place in school for me.
I stayed one year at home that was 2005.
At the end of this year, a young man came and
asked to marry me. My
mother agreed.
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At
this time, I had gone to see a young man of our clan,
whose name is Yohanna Raphael.
I told him to look for a school for me.
By good luck, he got a place for me at Emusoi
Centre. When
he got this place, he came to tell me and I agreed to
it. I told
him that I would go to study.
When he went to tell my relatives that he had a
place for me, they tricked him and told him that I was
pregnant because they did not want me to study but they
wanted me to get married.
My mother, at first, wanted me to study, but then
she received advice from my relatives, convincing her
that I shouldn’t study, but that I should marry.
So she refused to give me permission to study.
When I heard this, I just kept quiet because I
wasn’t able to do anything else.
When
Yohanna saw this, he went to our village leaders and
told them that they should help him take me and send me
to school. At
this time, I was taken by force by the leaders and
brought to school. I
came to join Pre-Form I at Emusoi in 2006.
When I returned to school for holidays, my
relatives still didn’t want me to study, but by now my
mother had agreed that I study.
Now,
I no longer have trouble when I go home.
I can be there in peace.
Before, my relatives saw me as a bad person
because I agreed to study.
They said bad things about me.
I was seen as a disobedient child who would not
listen to the advice of her elders.
But
I thank God because now I can talk with them well, as
friends. On
my part, I love to study and I ask God to help me study
with all my energy without missing any of my studies so
that in the future I will have a good life.
When
I finish my studies, I want to help other girls like
myself whose parents don’t know the meaning and value
of education and who do not have the means to educate
their children so that they can have development like
other people. I
ask God to help me make my hopes a reality.
Written
by Nademwa Orpuria, July 2007
Translated
by Sr. Mary Vertucci, 20 July 2007
Note:
Nademwa was able to get a scholarship to study at
Barbro Johansson Model Girls’ Secondary School.
UPDATE: Nademwa Orpuria graduated
from Form IV with an excellent pass. While waiting for
her results, her relatives married her off but Emusoi
sent the police to bring her back to Emusoi. She will
begin advanced level studies on scholarship at one of
the best girls secondary schools in Tanzania.
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Sipha
My name is Siphaely Issack
Lemunga, or Sifa for short.
I was born in Mererani village in Kilimanjaro
Region. I
have three sisters.
I live with my mother but I don't have a father.
My mother was unable to have children of her own.
According to Maasai tradition a woman without
children receives children from relatives.
After primary school I stayed home for a year
then joined Emusoi Center.
Now I am in form VI, second year college.
My mother struggled to help me get into secondary school
but the problems were financial and language.
She is not educated so she doesn't have work.
We Maasai are pastoralists but my mother's
husband sent her away from his home because she could
not have children and she had no animals to keep.
My uncle did give her one cow but she had to work
in other people's fields to make money for food for us.
My mother went to my uncle
for help to get me into high school but my uncle laughed
at her and said it was impossible because he was looking
for a school for his own daughter, thus, unwilling to
help my mother. My
mum came home very tired and she had lost hope.
But God is great.
After one year passed my mum went to another
village, Muungano, and met one of her relative’s
sister, Leah Shedrak, who had gone to Emusoi.
She told my mum all about Emusoi and where it was
located.
My mum tried to think how she could get money to
go to Arusha, plus she didn’t know Kiswahili and she
had never been there before.
A few weeks later, my mum sold our only cow so I
could travel to Arusha and many weeks later my uncle
finally took me to Emusoi.
I stayed for one week in Emusoi.
Sr. Mary got me an interview at Ngarenaro
Secondary School and I was able start my high school
studies. After
Form II, I passed the National Examination to continue
on to Form III and IV but changed to Green bird Girls
Secondary School where I completed high school.
I took the National Exams and joined St. Thomas
Secondary School in Dar-es-Salaam.
Now I am in Form 6 (or 2nd year
college).
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My desire is to become a
good Minister of Women and Children so that I can save
the lives of women and children who have suffering in
their lives. I
have already brought six students from my village and a
nearby village who had tough lives like I did.
Thanks to my God who enabled me to reach Emusoi.
They helped me get an education and gave me care.
Thanks to my beloved mum who struggled to open
the way in my life because education is a key of life.
Lastly, thanks to my uncle who came to Arusha to
look for Emusoi. I
believe in that all things are made possible through
God.
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