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Against all odds: Kakenya's story

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Subido el 26 de junio de 2007 por EducaMadrid

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It’s always difficult to set a dramatic new course for your life, defying your family’s expectations. But the extraordinary young woman you’re about to meet paid a particular high price to get what she wanted.

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It's always difficult to set a dramatic new course for your life, defying your family's expectations. 00:00:00

But the extraordinary young woman that you're about to meet paid a particularly high price to get what she wanted. 00:00:07

Here's her story. 00:00:14

Like most graduate students, Kakenya Ntaya likes nothing better than letting her hair down after a hard day studying. 00:00:16

Bowling is a way to unwind after hours in the library. 00:00:30

She belongs to the Maasai, a world away from bowling alleys and the comfortable corridors of academia. 00:00:46

Fetching drinking water from the local stream, plowing the fields, milking the cows, 00:00:59

and cooking dinner in a mud hut, this is Kakenya's old life. 00:01:14

And this is her new world, microwaved pizza, the life of a graduate student in America. 00:01:22

Kakenya Ntaya is in Pittsburgh studying for her doctorate in international education. 00:01:34

At weekly seminars, Kakenya gives her perspective to university staff and to other students. 00:01:43

I feel that education is the key to changing things. 00:01:49

And to educate people, they become liberalized. 00:01:52

I mean, they make their own decisions and things like that. 00:01:56

And I believe that we need leaders. 00:01:59

Kakenya is writing her dissertation on girls' education, how and where they learn best. 00:02:03

For a Maasai woman, it's a subject that's very close to her heart. 00:02:09

My teachers, they were not encouraging me. 00:02:14

As girls, we saw that, oh, it's the boys who will do well. 00:02:17

They're the ones who will go to high school. 00:02:21

They're the ones who will do A, B, C, D. 00:02:23

But as girls, we felt constrained. 00:02:25

There are more than 350,000 Maasai in Kenya. 00:02:30

Former nomadic warriors are famously proud of their traditions, including strong views about a woman's role. 00:02:35

The Maasai don't value much about women. 00:02:42

They are just to give birth, maybe to look after our children. 00:02:46

A father is proud of having many girls because he will get a lot of cows when they marry off their daughters. 00:02:52

Kakenya's father was no exception. 00:03:00

His biggest concern was marrying off his oldest daughter, 00:03:02

and that meant the officially outlawed practice of female circumcision, 00:03:05

the traditional Maasai rite of passage to womanhood. 00:03:09

I said, you know, once I go through this, I am married. 00:03:13

My school is ending. 00:03:16

I told dad, this is what's going to happen. 00:03:18

I can only get circumcised if you let me go back to school. 00:03:20

And the reason I did that is that if I don't get circumcised, 00:03:24

no man will marry me, and then it will be a shame to my family. 00:03:28

I had to trade my, you know, my parts of my body to get an education. 00:03:34

The women of the village already have their own ideas for Kakenya. 00:03:43

They say we want a girls' school. 00:03:48

We want our girls to be in a separate place with the men. 00:03:50

So Kakenya, whose only goal was to get an education, 00:03:54

found a mission to build a school and to educate all the girls in her village. 00:03:57

I want to see girls in my village happy. 00:04:03

That's my goal, and I know that the only or the best way I can achieve that 00:04:05

is by giving them a school. 00:04:12

Kakenya is hoping that her studies in America 00:04:15

will show her the best way to educate girls, 00:04:17

but she has already made another discovery about life in the United States. 00:04:20

Kakenya has fallen in love, Western style. 00:04:25

Her boyfriend Michael is Kenyan, but not Maasai, 00:04:29

and he lives in Washington, D.C. 00:04:32

Holding hands would be unacceptable in Kakenya's village. 00:04:36

Now Michael is about to go one step further, giving Kakenya a big surprise. 00:04:40

Kakenya, will you marry me? 00:04:51

Proposing on one knee is not a Maasai custom, 00:05:03

nor is being given an engagement ring. 00:05:07

Kakenya hasn't been back to her village for two years. 00:05:11

Whenever I go home, I feel like some weight has been taken away from me. 00:05:19

All of a sudden, my brain feels lighter, I can think straight. 00:05:24

The village women have come to welcome her and to remind her 00:05:30

that she is not alone. 00:05:34

The village women have come to welcome her and to remind her 00:05:37

that she is still very much a Maasai. 00:05:40

Our girls are disadvantaged, they are being deprived of their education, 00:05:47

so we've been thinking that if we have a place that we can put them, 00:05:51

they can be able to finish their schooling and they can be able 00:05:55

at least to be better persons in the future. 00:05:58

So we are hoping that now that she is going to school to a better place 00:06:01

that is better than here, we expect that she will do something good 00:06:04

for the community around here. 00:06:07

The women's words have made a deep impression on Kakenya. 00:06:10

She visits her old school, N.O. Osayem Primary. 00:06:13

OK, good morning, class. 00:06:17

Good morning, teacher. 00:06:19

How are you? 00:06:21

We are fine, thank you, teacher. 00:06:22

Sit down. 00:06:25

Thank you, teacher, and you're welcome. 00:06:26

Kakenya asks the children how many of them want to go to university. 00:06:30

In the older classes, things are even tougher for the girls. 00:06:43

There are few girls, as you can see, compared to the lower grade. 00:06:47

Most of the girls drop out of school because they are married off, 00:06:51

most of them get circumcised and they don't go back to school. 00:06:56

They don't have many opportunities because the Maasai men, 00:07:00

they don't want to infest the girls' education. 00:07:04

She has remained the same Kakenya. 00:07:10

She still seems the same girl who left. 00:07:13

But she has changed the girls of N.O. Osayem, 00:07:16

because now they all want to study like her. 00:07:19

I'm very proud. 00:07:23

I would never consider the States my home. 00:07:26

Living in the U.S. for now to better my future, yes, but for good, no. 00:07:29

Home is home. 00:07:35

I think that this is where I'm needed the most, 00:07:37

and I think that being in the Ministry of Education 00:07:40

is one way that I can serve the people, 00:07:43

because I know education is the most important thing 00:07:45

that you can ever give to any person. 00:07:48

I want to be able to change that every child in Kenya, 00:07:50

no matter if you're an elite, if you're a poor kid, 00:07:53

you're going to get the same education as all of them. 00:07:56

One day, hopefully become a president of this country, yes! 00:08:00

One day, yes, president of Kenya, Kakenya! 00:08:07

He's running away! 00:08:12

Kakenya continues her studies and plans to marry this year 00:08:15

in a traditional Maasai ceremony. 00:08:19

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Autor/es:

United Nations (Naciones Unidas)

Subido por:

EducaMadrid

Licencia:

Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada

Visualizaciones:

600

Fecha:

26 de junio de 2007 - 16:24

Visibilidad:

Público

Enlace Relacionado:

21st Century Television Series

Duración:

08′ 23″

Relación de aspecto:

4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.

Resolución: