Malambo update: August 2008
There’s a relaxed atmosphere in Malambo
Rain in February and March has reassured people that they won’t face severe drought this season. Cattle are grazing contentedly within sight of the homesteads...
Change is in the air. Towns and villages in the region are growing fast – and Malambo is no exception. There is more contact with other areas and towns; many more people coming in from other areas; more trade; more chance to earn money. But with so much interaction, the Maasai people of Malambo are also more exposed to risks. One of the most deadly is HIV and AIDS, which have swept across the region, devastating young lives.
The first case of AIDS from Malambo was back in 1994, and today,
the majority of those testing positive in this part of the country are
from Malambo. So Oxfam and its partner organisations are funding
and supporting life-saving work with groups of women and young
men. Workshops are run to raise awareness of the virus, including
information on the treatments and support available, how to protect
themselves, and prevent infection. There is now an HIV-testing centre
in Malambo itself, funded by LIFE supporters.
The traditional respect shown to village elders, and the influence they have in their communities, made it vital to get them on board with our plans. They now openly support our work.
It has been a challenge to tackle this issue. Sex is not spoken about openly in Maasai culture, and accepting that some of the traditional Maasai customs, such as esoto (all-night dancing parties), could encourage promiscuous and high-risk behaviour was a difficult lesson for many people.
Thanks to your support, training and awareness-raising is having a widespread effect; people are learning and changing the way they behave, and starting to accept that change is necessary if they are to survive. Even traditional practices such as female circumcision, and men having several wives, are not so common as they used to be. Women, especially, are benefiting from this change.
‘Breaking the silence of our culture’
The bonds between boys in each generation, or ‘age set’, of Maasai men are very strong, and remain throughout their lives. Life for the Maasai is based upon relationships that bind together the male age-sets.
The young men from the Ilkilakuno Youth Group, all in their twenties,
are using their relationship with their own age-set to advantage.
They attend workshops funded by Oxfam, and then travel to villages
around Malambo, including Piyaya, Engerasero, and Pinyinyi, which
are supported by LIFE, passing on what they have learned – using
songs and dance to get their messages across. They talk about the
dangers of promiscuous behaviour, and how it’s essential to change.
“Ukimwi (AIDS) came to us from outside, but we know that
it affects anyone. We began in 2004, travelling to tell people about
HIV and AIDS. These are our people, and we want them to
survive. There’s a lot to do in educating girls about the risks and
how to protect themselves. Parents find it difficult to talk to their
daughters about these subjects. But our leaders hold our way of
life in their hands – and they support what we do.
“In workshops, Susana told us about HIV; we learned for the
first time that mothers can transmit the virus to their children.
We learned how condoms could protect us; and we saw women’s
condoms – we’d never seen those before. We used to be afraid to
talk about these things, but we have to break the silence of our
culture. Without Oxfam’s work, none of us would have this
understanding.”
In the shade of the Acacia trees…
More than a hundred women are gathered,
all members of groups attending a two-day
workshop, supported by Oxfam, to raise
awareness of HIV and AIDS.
Susana Koillah works with one of Oxfam’s partner organisations, funded by LIFE, travelling to villages to hold workshops like this one, and to meet traditional leaders in the communities. Her confident and informal approach helps her in her work. She can cajole the boys, who respect her as they would an aunt, and she can joke with the women, who accept her as one of their own generation.
“At first, the women were shocked
when I told them people were testing positive right here in Malambo. But the thing I like about being Maasai is that we are close – we like each other! We can be open. We now have a testing centre, and if you test positive, it’s OK – people accept it. Among us, if you leave orphans, you know they will be cared for.
“I’m glad that most people are now aware of HIV. It’s only in places far away at the edge of the Serengeti that they don’t know of the dangers, the risks. In Malambo, people know that HIV is not just something affecting outsiders – like they used to in the past. Now they know it affects everyone in the world – it’s up to them to change their behaviour, and that’s not easy.”
Susana sees signs of change, and hopes it will continue, although she knows the scale of the problem is daunting.
“For example, esoto, (‘night dancing’) has not been banned, but it has been changed – girls no longer attend. Because there are
no girls present, the boys lose interest in these parties. Views and attitudes are changing, but still we know that many villages will be affected; there will be many victims.”
Speaking at the workshop is a respected elder, Napikiya Sucari, a traditional birth attendant who has trained on courses funded by Oxfam. Napikiya explains that in Maasai culture, husbands and wives do not live together all the time. Husbands choose when to visit their wife’s or wives’ houses, and if they wish to spend the night, children were expected to leave the house to give them privacy.
“In the past, if a woman’s husband went to spend the night in her house, her children had to go out. They might go anywhere – that was when they would go to the night-dancing parties and put themselves at risk. One of the ideas that came out of a training meeting we had, was to build extra houses, where children and young people can stay, and to encourage girls to stay with their grandmothers, for example, to be safe.”
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