Tanzania is home to over 100 different tribes. Sadly, the Maasai tribe has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the nation. This is largely due to tribal elders' reluctance to support formal education for their children. Girls are especially negatively impacted by tribal traditions which promote marriage as young as 12 and 13 years of age and seek to prevent education of their children beyond Primary School.
According to the Maasai Education Foundation, only 20 to 30% of Maasai children of Primary School age, are enrolled in school. Only 1/3 of those students are female. Because the law in Tanzania only requires compulsory school attendance through grade 7, which is the end of Primary School, the number of Maasai students who continue on to Secondary School (high school) is very low, with a small percentage being female.
Esther - Our First Maasai Student to Study Social WorkHidden with Christ Ministries has endeavored to make a difference in the lives and futures of Maasai students through our Treasures of Africa KIDZ Project. Currently, we have two Maasai young ladies, Esther and Esupati, who are being sponsored as college students at the Institute for Social Work in Mwanga, Tanzania. Their journey to get to this level of education has been nothing short of traumatic.
Esther’s father was a Maasai traditionalist who did not believe in educating girls. Her mother, however, wanted her daughters to receive an education. This intense disagreement led to Esther’s father abandoning the family and marrying another woman. However, he was determined to give Esther in marriage as early as possible so that he could reap the bride price of cows in exchange for his daughter.
When Esther was in Standard Five, (fifth grade) her father found a man for her to marry and received cows from him as the bride price for the arranged marriage. He instructed Esther that when she reached Standard Seven, she should intentionally fail her exams (which would prevent her from attending Secondary School) so that she could marry the man from whom he had received cows.
Esther rejected her father's plan, insisting that she needed to continue her education. Though her father pressured her to agree, she steadfastly refused to deliberately fail her exams, in order to marry a stranger. This led to many arguments with her father. On the contrary, Esther’s mother encouraged her to persevere, work hard in school, and strive to pass her Standard Seven exams so that she could continue with her Secondary School education.
Esther’s father concocted a wicked scheme to force Esther to marry. He arranged with the young man from whom he had received the bride price, to go to the house where Esther was staying, at a time her mother was away from home. He arrived there with two friends and forced himself upon her. This was intended to force Esther to agree to the marriage, out of shame, if for no other reason.
Instead of this criminal act being dealt with by police, Esther’s father and other Maasai traditional leaders “concluded the matter” in a meeting without involving government officials. The whole situation had been her father's arrangement to ensure that Esther would not pursue further education and be forced to marry the man from whom he received the dowry. But Esther staunchly refused to agree to the marriage. She was 14 years old at the time.
With her mother’s determined help, Esther went on to attend and graduate from Secondary School. That victory alone was more than most Maasai girls ever accomplish. But Esther desired to go further, and to attend college.
Esupati - Our Second Maasai Student Studying at the Insititute for Social WorkHidden with Christ Ministries stepped in and took Esther to Moshi, where she was housed in our Transition House for college-aged girls. She was sent to English classes for several months in order to prepare her for college which would be taught in English only. Then she was sent to computer school because she had no experience whatsoever with computers, and that too, would be required in college. Just getting Esther ready for college was an expensive undertaking, but the investment in this young lady’s life was worth it. Esther is now in her second year at the Institute for Social Work and loves what she is studying. She is preparing herself to go back to the Maasai community to help young girls like herself, achieve their dreams.
Esupati was also under tremendous pressure to marry an older man she did not know or love. Her father had died, but her brothers were determined to extract a dowry of cattle from a potential husband for their sister. Esupati wanted no part of this plan for her life. She wept and begged the brothers to stop their scheming. She eventually ran to her pastor, who agreed to try and find a way to help her.
Her pastor contacted Hidden with Christ Ministries and asked if we could help Esupati attend college. Like Esther, she needed a lot of preparation before she would be able to handle college-level studies. She came to live at the Transition house, attended English and computer classes, and was coached in “city living” versus village life by the older TOA college girls. She learned how to budget money for food from her monthly allowance and how to shop at the local markets. These were all things she had never done before. Then she enrolled at the Institute for Social Work and joined Esther, who has faithfully encouraged her.
These two Maasai young women will become important leaders in their community when they complete their schooling. And the supporters of the Treasures of Africa KIDZ Education Project will have had the honor of helping them achieve something that less than 1% of Maasai women ever attain – a college education.
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