September 9, 2008
Dear friends and family,
It’s International Literacy Week! Because you can read this letter, and I can write it, let’s give thanks!! Over 8 million adults in Kenya do not know how to read or write …. and over 60% of them are women.
And Happy Ramadhan! It is now the holy month of Ramadhan, which started with the new moon in early September. For the entire month, Muslims are fasting from sunrise to sunset – they do not drink or eat during daylight hours, and only break the fast in the evenings. This is a month of atonement and solidarity with people in need – a time to feel the pangs of hunger so that one understands the importance of giving alms to the poor. It is one of the most important holidays of the Islamic faith. I am looking forward to returning to Lamu soon to join in the fasting and prayers and cooking with Muslim women.
I have had another busy and exciting month here in Kenya. An overview: I had an article published; learned about school violence; returned to the Taita International School; witnessed a rite of passage among the Mwakitutu women’s group; attended a peace and justice conference in Nakuru of the National Council of Churches of Kenya; went on safari and witnessed the wildebeest migration at the Maasai Mara wildlife reserve; listened to lectures on national gender issues; interviewed more activists and educators in women’s organizations; and attended the International Literacy Day Festival in Nairobi.
I will start with a highlight for all you animal lovers: in late August, Mama Mjomba and I traveled to Maasai Mara, a huge game reserve in the Southern Rift Valley, on the border with Tanzania. We went on a safari for three days, and had a wonderful vacation together. We saw lions, cheetahs, serval cats, elephants, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, hippos, crocodiles, ostriches, and dozens of species of antelopes, gazelles and birds. One of the most incredible sights was the wildebeest migration, an annual event that is considered one of the “seven wonders of the world.” Thousands of wildebeests migrate from the plains of northern Tanzania into Kenya in search of grazing land from July to September. They are a sight to behold, especially when they start running – it is like a huge wave of animals moving in formation. We also saw a family of six adolescent lions – 3 males and 3 females – the largest number I have ever seen in one place. One lioness climbed a tree like a leopard, to the great delight of our guide, Kaka, who said he had never witnessed such behavior. We also were lucky on the last morning to see a mama lioness with two babies – they acted and sounded just like kittens! We also saw a whole herd of elephant mamas and babies – including an elephant breastfeeding her baby! Amazing. Mama Mjomba said that she had always wanted to visit Maasai Mara, and that this was the highlight of her retirement. We stayed in a very nice tented camp with beds and hot showers, and delicious meals prepared by a cook who was very attentive to Mama’s diabetic diet. After three days in the Mara, it was difficult to leave, but we were grateful to have some time in the wilderness to witness God’s creation and to restore our spirits.
The rest of the month I have spent very much immersed in the world of humans. My last posting to you included an article that I wrote about the tenth anniversary of the bomb blast at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. I was in Nairobi when the embassy was bombed in 1998, and I have been trying to write and speak about it ever since. After I attended the memorial service in Nairobi on August 7, I wrote an article. My article was published in the “Reader’s Forum” column of The Athens News, my hometown newspaper. It was also published in Pambazuka News in the column “Pan-African Postcard.” Pambazuka News is a website publishing news on social justice issues in Africa, and has been elected as one of the top ten websites changing the internet and politics.
In July and August, many schools around Kenya were still reeling from the outbreak of violence and riots in over 300 schools. The violence was mostly located in schools in Nairobi, Central Province, the Rift Valley, and Western Kenya. Students burned dormitories, labs and classroom buildings, and attacked their teachers and fellow students. They caused millions of shillings’ worth of damage, and created a climate of fear in schools throughout the country. There was a national debate about how to control the youth, with some members of Parliament suggesting that the “cane,” or corporal punishment, should be reintroduced. Adults admonished the youth for being corrupted by drugs, alcohol, sex, TV, and rap music. Some also pointed out that perhaps there was “too much democracy” in Kenya, and that young people had learned bad habits of violent protest, mass action, and civil disobedience from the recent post-election violence.
Many teachers are now requesting a 200% raise and are complaining that the costs of providing education and food for schools is rising, yet the government is not providing enough support. Many of the youth interviewed by the media stated that the school system needed to be reorganized and made relevant to the realities of 21st century Kenya, preparing the youth for the world that they are going to inherit. They said that the riots were the result of students protesting bad food, authoritarian teachers, corrupt principals, and anger over examinations. They were angry about the increasing focus on “high stakes testing” – or examinations at the end of primary and secondary school that would solely determine their future success. There is little time for children and youth to explore, or to relax, or to do the things that we normally associate with childhood. Sound familiar? The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) have become the focus of the curriculum, and many students feel very stressed and pressured to achieve high scores. Nevertheless, last year over 40,000 students’ scores on the KCSE had to be changed due to computer glitches and the leakage of test results.
Although some schools in Taita were also affected by violence, the Taita International School has remained peaceful. When I returned, the school was closed for the August holiday, so there were few students around except for the “tuition” program. This program provides additional tutoring and educational activities for community children – it is similar to the “Kids on Campus” program at Ohio University, where both Maria and Mjomba worked as teachers when they were in Athens. This tuition program has been very successful in Taita, and has attracted new students from the community.
When I arrived in Taita, I brought all the gifts and donations that I could carry from my recent trip to Ohio. Mjomba and Maria were grateful for the cash donation, and they matched it for a down payment on a piece of land in Mwatate, where they will start to build permanent school buildings. They are currently renting, and they are looking forward to building on a site that they will own – this will save a lot of money in the long run. They were also thrilled to receive all of the books, maps, games, toys, CD-Roms, Video games, digital camera, and other educational supplies that were donated. We discussed the pen pals program, and we will recruit students when they return from school holidays. I have already received feedback from many of you who are interested in recruiting pen pals in your own communities.
I also continued with my research with women’s groups in Taita. The Mwakitutu Women’s Group is a group that I have been working with since January. One of their members, Jerusha Nyange, suddenly died on June 30 at the age of 75. She had been a member of Mwakitutu for 25 years, and the members of the group were very saddened by her death. The funeral took place while I was in Ohio, but the group decided to pay a visit to her family in mid-August to express their condolences and to help with the funeral expenses. I was grateful to be included in this ceremony. We gathered at her home and said prayers around her grave. Then we met, offered our gifts, and drank chai with her children, grandchildren, and her co-wife (her husband had two wives). They told us that Jerusha had attended school up to Standard Four (4th grade) but dropped out when her parents could no longer afford the school fees. She married her husband, Amon, when she was still a teenager. She gave birth to seven children, but only one survived to adulthood, a daughter named Daisy. Her co-wife gave birth to five children, but only two survived. Jerusha loved and cherished all of these three surviving children and her six grandchildren. She was an active member of her church and the Mwakitutu Women’s Group. She seemed to be in great health, and was still farming, carrying firewood, and working as she always had done. But on June 30, she did not return from her shamba. When they went to search for her after dark, they found that she had died in the garden. They thought that maybe she had been bitten by a snake or had a heart attack, but an autopsy revealed that she had a large cyst on her liver. Her children said that she had never complained of any pain, and that she had probably not wanted to spend the money on her own medical care.
Her family talked a lot about how much her women’s group meant to her. She joined the group in 1983 when she was attending adult education classes at the Mwakitutu Primary School, next to her home. She learned skills in literacy and numeracy from the classes, and the group continued to stay strong over the past 25 years. Her children said that the group helped their whole family with the installation of water tanks, assistance with farming, construction of buildings, and payment of school fees that sent all three children through college. The group had also helped her to build a small shop where she sold candies and sugar cane to students at the local primary school, providing her with an income after her husband died.
After her death, her daughter Daisy found a letter that Jerusha wrote in May, which stated “Mimi nikifa mtoto wangu Dezi achukue nafasi yangu ya gurupu. Mimi Jerusha.” (When I die, my child Daisy takes my place in the group. Me Jerusha.) This note was like her last will and testament – not describing how to deal with her property, but identifying her wishes for her daughter to be “inherited” by her women’s group. This group practices this system of “inheritance” of daughters or daughters-in-law after a woman dies, which ensures that the group keeps living, and that the collective wealth created stays within the families of the original members. The group invited Daisy to join them, and they were excited since she is a nursery school teacher and has literacy skills that will help them with record-keeping, taking minutes of their meetings, and writing letters to government officials and banks. Daisy was nervous to join since she has a busy schedule as a teacher, and is unmarried. They told her that she can send her sister-in-law to work with them in her place. And if she gets married and has to move away to her husband’s land, then her sister-in-law can become a member. Daisy was ecstatic after the meeting – although she was still bereaved and shocked over the death of her mother, it was like she had inherited a whole group of mothers!
After this event, I felt like I had just witnessed a very important rite of passage among women’s groups in Taita. Not only do women’s groups provide important support for women, but their influence extends throughout their entire families and communities. And not only do they work together and assist each other with making an income, but they provide an important source of counseling and social support in times of grief and bereavement.
In the meantime, I have continued to work on writing my field notes and transcribing interviews – a long process. I am amazed at how much information I have collected in just ten months, and I still have two more months to go! Luckily, I got assistance translating the Kiswahili and Kidawida (the Taita language) interviews from three research assistants – two Master’s level students from Kenyatta University and a relative of a colleague from Taita. It has been good to start getting these transcripts in print, and to start re-reading and analyzing the things that have been discussed in interviews – very rich data and powerful stories.
Lately, I have been primarily focused on the life history of Mrs. Joan Mjomba, who is the mother of my friend Mjomba and an amazing community leader in Taita. I was first introduced to Mama Mjomba through my professor, Dr. Lisa Aubrey, who met her back in 1992 while she was doing dissertation research on the national women’s organization Maendeleo ya Wanawake (Women’s Development). Dr. Aubrey has sent numerous interns to work with Mama Mjomba since then, and Mama was one of my key contacts for my Fulbright application. She was a leader of Maendeleo ya Wanawake for Taita District and Coast Province, and also served as the treasurer for many years. She is an educator and one of the first women in Taita to be trained as a teacher and an education officer. She also served in the Town Council and as the first mayor of Voi for many years – the third woman in Kenya to serve as a mayor. She represented Kenya at the United Nations in New York and at the U.N. Conference for Women in Beijing, China in 1995. She is also a farmer, a wife, a widow, a mother, a grandmother, and is considered a strong leader of her extended clan. In her retirement, she is really focused on growing food on her shamba, especially to support the Taita International School. She says that it is the role of the grandmothers to grow surplus food and to ensure that all of the children in the community have enough to eat in times of famine. She is also serving on the Board of Trustees of the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), a national ecumenical organization representing 50 Protestant churches throughout the nation. Although she is almost 75 years young, she continues to travel and to stay engaged in national committees about church matters, women’s issues, the post-election violence, and the educational system. We have recorded over a dozen long interviews, and I am now adding this data to a book that was started by her son, Leonard Majalia Mjomba. We are hoping to finish a rough draft of the book in time for her 75th Birthday in November. Her stories will also feature prominently in my own dissertation about popular education among women’s organizations in Coast Province.
Mama Mjomba invited me to attend the National Pastors’ Conference of the National Council of Churches of Kenya, which was held in Nakuru in Rift Valley Province from August 20-23 at Kabarak University. I was thrilled to be included in the team representing the Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) of Coast Province. I joined the conference with over 1,300 church ministers and lay leaders from every province of Kenya, and was overwhelmed by the messages of the speakers and everyone I met. The theme of the conference was “…and the Truth will set you free” (John 8:32) and the focus was on national healing and reconciliation after the post-election violence. Church leaders spoke about the need for the churches to take a more pro-active role to stopping violence and teaching peace and justice in their communities. There was a lot of discussion and Bible study about the need for repentance, forgiveness, and conflict management. The church leaders also admitted that they had made mistakes, had gotten involved in partisan and ethnic politics, and had been too slow to act when violence rocked the country. We also listened to former President Daniel arap Moi, who visited the conference for a brief speech on Friday. He discussed the need for political leaders to bring the country together in unity and to reject negative ethnicity and patronage. He defended his 24-year rule, saying he was “misunderstood to be a dictator” because of his “strict policy of instilling discipline” throughout the country. He claimed, “many people would say that Mzee Jomo Kenyatta or Moi did not do this or that but I wish they were in our shoes.” It was interesting to listen to Moi discuss his presidency and to reflect on the recent post-election violence. Overall, the NCCK conference was an incredible week filled with tears, laughter, and a lot of learning. I met dozens of new friends and interviewed women from various churches about the role of women’s groups in their churches and communities. It was an excellent opportunity to learn more about the role of faith in women’s lives, and the growing potential for women’s leadership in Christian churches in Kenya. As African philosopher John Mbiti claims, “Africans are notoriously religious,” and it is believed that over 95% of Kenyans are active participants in their churches, mosques or temples, as well as indigenous religions.
After our trip to the NCCK conference, Mama Mjomba and I then went on our safari at Maasai Mara for some much-needed R&R. Mama then returned to the Coast, and I stayed behind in Nairobi to visit some doctors and to continue with research here. I am living with an excellent family in Nairobi – Dan and Edwinah Ogola and their two adorable sons, Leanew (6) and Kyle (8 months). They run a socially-conscious tour company, a primary school in the Kibera slums, and have started a medical foundation called the Matibabu (Treatment) Foundation. Matibabu provides medical care in rural medical clinics and hospitals in the Nyanza Province of Western Kenya. I have met some interesting doctors and health experts from the U.S. who are teaching me a lot about women’s health and the challenges of educating and caring for patients with malaria and HIV/AIDS.
At Kenyatta University, I have met with my advisor and my research assistants, and attended the Gender Roundtable Discussion about “African Feminisms” where I met some interesting professors working on gender issues. I also attended a Gender Forum of Kenya’s Chapter of the International Committee of Jurists analyzing the gender dimensions of the “Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission” bill. I have interviewed several leaders of women’s organizations and civic educators working in Nairobi and throughout the country. And I attended the International Literacy Day Festival at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi, where I met educators, activists, and government officials working to promote literacy throughout the country. I met one woman who started in a basic adult literacy class, then went on to finish the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, and is now enrolled in a university and is the Director of the Kenya Adult Learners Association. I also met an 85 year old man who went back to school when the government instituted free primary education – he just received an award for finishing the 8th grade! The Literacy Festival included songs, dances, poetry, and drama performed by children and adults from throughout Nairobi. I also listened to the Minister of Education, Sam Ongeri, give a moving speech about how education is a basic human right for all people. He discussed the need for more resources and teachers directed to Adult and Continuing Education in Kenya – and for more cooperation with NGOs and community-based organizations - which is one of the major findings of my dissertation research!
So, life is good and I am happy. I will spend the next month in Lamu, where I will continue with my research with women’s groups and adult education programs. I hope to learn more about how Muslim women’s faith influences the work of their organizations, and about the teachings of Islam regarding education. After that, I will have just a few more weeks left in Kenya - I am planning to return home to Ohio on Halloween. While I am getting sad about my imminent departure, I am also excited to be home again soon! It is good to have family and friends all over the world….. after all, wherever you go, there you are.
Well, take care of yourselves, and keep in touch.
Peace,
Cat Cutcher
