Umoja Uaso ("unity" in Swahili, the Uaso Nyiro is a nearby river) is a village in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. The village, founded in 1990, is an all-female matriarch village located near the town of Archers Post in Samburu County, from the capital,

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

. It was founded by Rebecca Lolosoli, a Samburu woman, as a sanctuary for homeless survivors of

violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence (GBV) or sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), violent, violence primarily committed by Man, men or boys against woman, women or girls. Such violence is often considered hat ...

, and young girls running from

forced marriages Forced marriage is a marriage in which one or more of the parties is married without their consent or against their will. A marriage can also become a forced marriage even if both parties enter with full consent if one or both are later force ...

female genital mutilation Female genital mutilation (FGM) (also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision) is the cutting or removal of some or all of the vulva for non-medical reasons. Prevalence of female ge ...

. The women of the Samburu people do not agree with violence and the traditional subordinate position of women. They run a primary school, cultural center and camping site for tourists visiting the adjacent Samburu National Reserve. They create and sell jewellery to benefit the village.

History

Samburu women have a subordinate position in their society. They are not allowed to own land or other types of property, such as livestock. Women themselves are considered property of their husbands. They can be subject to female genital mutilation, forced marriage with the elders, rape, and domestic violence. In 2003,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

reported credible evidence of numerous rapes of Kenyan women by members of the British Army for decades. A case was brought up against the British military for the rapes of over 1,400 Samburu women. The case was "cleared". These women were abandoned by their husbands because they were considered to be "defiled." Other men drove the women out of their houses fearing they would now contract

sexually transmitted diseases A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, oral ...

from their raped wives. After many women found themselves without homes, they created Umoja. Rebecca Lolosoli is one of the founders of Umoja, and came up with the idea of creating a village for women when she was recovering after being beaten for speaking out against female genital mutilation. Eventually fifteen women came together to found the original village in 1990. In response, some men established their own, eventually unsuccessful villages nearby. The men tried to set up a rival craft business or would try to dissuade tourists from stopping at Umoja. The women eventually bought the land the men were occupying. The villagers first started out by selling vegetables they bought from others, since they did not know how to farm themselves. This was not very successful, and the village turned to selling traditional crafts to tourists. The

Kenya Wildlife Service Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is a state corporation under the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife established by an act of Parliament; Wildlife Conservation and Management Act CAP 376, of 1989, now repealed and replaced by the Wildlife Conservation ...

s took notice and helped the women learn from successful groups in areas such as the

Maasai Mara Maasai Mara, sometimes also spelt Masai Mara and locally known simply as The Mara, is a large national game reserve in Narok County, Kenya, contiguous with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It is named in honour of the Maasai people, th ...

, in order to improve Umoja's business. The women also had help from Kenya's Heritage and Social Services and the Ministry of Culture. After Lolosoli visited the United Nations in 2005, men in the neighboring village filed a court case against her, hoping to shut down the village. In 2009, Lolosoli's former husband attacked the village, threatening her life. For a time, the women fled the village for their safety. The women of the village currently own the land itself. As of 2021, the village's application for a community title over a tract of grazing land is undergoing government consideration.

Geography and demographics

Umoja is located in north-central

in Samburu County, near Archers Post. The village is made up of ''manyata''

hut A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, clay, hid ...

s built from a mixture of earth and cow dung on an abandoned

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

. The houses are surrounded by a fence of thorns and

barbed wire Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire or bob wire (in the Southern and Southwestern United States), is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the ...

. The people of the village have an objective to "improve the livelihoods of women due to rampant poverty and counter the problem of women being abandoned by their families." The village also takes in runaways or girls who have been thrown out of their households, and raises

orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown, or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to a child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew language, Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In some languages ...

s, abandoned children and children with

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

. The village has also provided asylum for women fleeing violence from the Turkana District. Residents in the community must all wear the traditional clothing and

beadwork Beadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another by stringing them onto a thread or thin wire with a sewing or beading needle or sewing them to cloth. Beads are produced in a diverse range of materials, shapes, and sizes, and vary ...

of the

Samburu people The Samburu are a Nilotic peoples, Nilotic people of north-central Kenya. Traditionally, they are semi-nomadic pastoralists who primarily herd cattle but also keep sheep, goats and camels. They refer to themselves as Lokop or Loikop, a term with ...

. Female genital mutilation is outlawed in the village.

Population

Men are permitted to visit the village, but not allowed to live in Umoja. As of 2015, one man visited the village daily to do work tending to livestock. Boys raised in the village are asked to leave when they reach age eighteen. Only men who were raised as children in Umoja may sleep in the village. The village also takes in orphans, runaways, and abandoned children. In 2005, there were 30 women and 50 children living in Umoja. As of 2015, there were 47 women and 200 children living in the village.

Economy

Residents of Umoja are engaged in traditional Samburu crafts which they sell at the Umoja Waso Women's Cultural Center. Crafts include colorful beads, a home-brewed low-alcohol beer analogue and more. The items are also available on a website. The women also run a campsite for tourists visiting the nearby Samburu National Reserve. Every woman donates ten percent of her earnings to the village as a

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

to support the school and other needs. The village suffered from a lack of income in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Education

In traditional society, children are engaged in tending livestock, but in Umoja, all children can get an education. There is a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

that can accommodate 50 children. The village has also been able to open a

nursery school A preschool (sometimes spelled as pre school or pre-school), also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin c ...

. Residents of the village go to other villages to promote

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

and in order to campaign against female circumcision.

Government

The women of the village gather under the "tree of speech" to make decisions for the town. Lolosoli serves as the chairperson of the village. All women in the village have equal status to one another.

References

External links

Official website of the film "Umoja, the village where men are forbidden"The Land of No Men: Inside Kenya's Women-Only Village
(2015 video)
Kenya : le village où les femmes font la loi — rfr
{{Authority control Populated places in Samburu County Women-only spaces Women in Kenya Populated places established in 1990 1990 establishments in Kenya Violence against women in Kenya Feminism in Kenya Intentional communities