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Summary: The Christian Children's Fund's Margery
Kabuya Adapts an Old Tradition to Trade Early
Marriage for Education.
Imagine being born into a society where, before you ever take your first
breath, someone - probably older than your father - has already claimed
you as his bride. Your freedom, your ability to pursue love, education and
other things we take for granted, are traded for what amounts to a few
head of cattle. For countless babies and girls in Kenya's Maasai tribe,
being "booked" for marriage before birth is a fact of life.
The Maasai people are a pastoral tribe in Kenya, who subscribe to the
practice of Esaiyata, or "booking" their daughters for marriage - usually
before they are even born. But one woman, Margery Kabuya, the East
Africa Regional Representative for Christian Children's Fund, is on a mission
to eliminate early marriage and other harmful traditions faced by African
girls. Kabuya is actually saving school-age girls in Kenya from circumcision
(or female genital mutilation) and early marriage through an innovative
project funded by CCF.
Kabuya substitutes the traditional practice of "booking" girls for marriage
with a new idea of "booking" them to attend school instead. The brilliance
of the program is that it uses the familiar process of offering a dowry to a
girl's father (in the form of donated livestock and gifts) in order to secure
the girl's release to the school. In essence, the school becomes the
child's "husband" and she is sent to live and study with other girls in the
boarding school.
To understand the significance of the Naning'oi School Project, it's
important to understand what "early marriage" really means to these girls.
Read Narinoi's story.
Narinoi Puruo is a 15-year-old Maasai girl, born and raised in Kenya. In an
interview with Rebecca Nandwa from The Nation (Nairobi), she fought back
tears as she told her story - a story painfully familiar for hundreds of
thousands of Maasai girls.
"When my mother was about six months pregnant with me, a man my
father had promised to give a wife to perpetuate their friendship came
over and smeared fresh cow dung on her belly. From then, the contract
was sealed. I was to be born his wife.
"My father and the man were overjoyed when I was born a girl. God and
the ancestors had granted their prayer. My mother had to play ball.
Mothers in our community have no voice. I am told that on the day I was
born, the man brought a fat he-goat that was slaughtered.
"Occasionally, the man came, gawped on his 'baby wife' as she was breast-
fed. The man and my father quaffed calabashes of beer together, hoping
that I'd grow up faster."
"I was about seven... when news started circulating in the neighborhood
that a school was to be established... for girls to learn free. It was said all
school-age girls would be targeted. My father panicked and fast-tracked
my circumcision [at just 8 years old] to prepare me for marriage before it
was too late."
What became of Narinoi? This child, fated to marry a man older than her
father before she ever took her first breath, was given an opportunity that
few Maasai girls ever dreamed possible - to escape early marriage and
become a student at the Naning'oi Girls Primary School. It is now her
dream to go to college and become a lawyer to champion the rights of
Maasai girls.
Kabuya Is Recognized for Her Efforts
Christian Children's Fund founded the Naning'oi Girls' Primary School in
1999 to rescue underage girls "booked" for marriage, and instead, "book"
them for school. Margery Kabuya has worked tirelessly on the Naning'oi
boarding school program since its inception, and has seen enrollment rise
from just four students in 1999 to nearly 350 boarders.
Kabuya was given the 2004 Agathe Uwilingiyimana Award for her work
with the Naning'oi Girls Primary School. The award is given each year by
the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), in recognition of
individuals or organizations that have used innovative strategies to
accelerate girls' access to education.