{"id":645752,"date":"2013-03-07T12:31:31","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T17:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ted.com\/?p=72495"},"modified":"2013-03-07T16:26:31","modified_gmt":"2013-03-07T21:26:31","slug":"meet-kakenya-ntaiya-who-worked-with-her-elders-to-found-a-school-for-girls-in-her-maasai-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/645752","title":{"rendered":"Meet Kakenya Ntaiya, who worked with her elders to found a school for girls in her Maasai village"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kakenya-Ntaiya\"Kakenya Ntaiya<\/a> was engaged at 5-years-old, her family members regularly whispering in her ear, \u201cYour husband just passed by.\u201d This was the traditional path that unfolded before girls in the Maasai village in Kenya where Ntaiya grew up.<\/p>\n

\"KakenyaKakenya Ntaiya: A girl who demanded school<\/span><\/a> \u201cIn Maasai culture, the boys are brought up to be warriors, the girls are brought up to be mothers,\u201d says Ntaiya in today\u2019s incredible talk<\/a>, given at TEDxMidAtlantic<\/a>. \u201cEverything I had to do from that moment was to prepare me to be the perfect woman by age 12.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Ntaiya had a different dream — to be a teacher. And so she offered her father a trade: she would go through with the traditional ceremony that marked her rite of passage into womanhood — which included clitoral circumcision — if he allowed her to go back to school and continue her education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe day before the ceremony, we were dancing, having excitement — we did not sleep,\u201d says Ntaiya, remembering the week-long lead-up. But she also recalls the painful circumcision itself and the long healing process. \u201cThree weeks later, I was healed and was back in high school. I was more determined to be a teacher now so that I could make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, Ntaiya she got a scholarship to study at Randolph Macon College in the United States and convinced her village elders to allow her to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father is not the only father I have. \u00a0Everybody who is my dad\u2019s age in the community is my father, by default, and they dictate what my future is,\u201d she explains. \u201cWhen the men heard that a woman had gotten an opportunity to go to school, they said, \u2018This should have gone to a boy. We can\u2019t do this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ntaiya has great reverence for her Masaai culture — she opens her talk saying, \u201cYou know what\u2019s cool? I\u2019m one of them.\u201d To hear how she used her culture\u2019s traditions to get the men of her village to support her education and how — upon returning to the village after graduate school — she was able to gain their support for founding a school for girls, listen to this powerful talk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As she says, \u201cI learned that ceremony I went through is called female genital mutilation. I learned that it was against the law in Kenya. I learned that I did not have to trade part of my body to get an education \u2026 As we speak right now, 125 girls will never be mutilated. 125 girls will not be married when they are 12-years-old. 125 girls are creating and achieving their dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Below, get to know more about Kakenya Ntaiya.<\/p>\n

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