Hyerdahl1 wrote:
> UMOJA JOURNAL
> From Broken Lives, Kenyan Women Build Place of Unity
> By MARC LACEY
>
> Published: December 7, 2004
>
> Evelyn Hockstein for The New York Times
> Villagers and tourists performing traditional dances in Umoja. The
women earn
> money by selling the bead necklaces they make.
>



A sober person reading this article would notice a few things right
away about this feminist utopia:
Its inhabitants live in mud huts and survive by selling trinckets
to passersby.
When something happens that makes them nervous they run to the
"authorities".

See, "patriarchy"s is a name for the social system that women insist
upon when there are lions and tigers and bears roaming around trying to
eat their children. And the only type man they will let near them is
the type that fights these monsters.
Then, when the coast is clear, feminist arose trying to blame men
for their subjugation.

The examples in all history of groups of women fighting groups of
men is zero, more or less. So your refrain about women and guns is
completely hollow.




>
> Still, one village around here, a place the people call Umoja,
manages to stand
> out from the rest. There are almost no men living here, the first
village one
> comes to on the road leading out of Archer's Post, the nearest town.
Women run
> the show in Umoja, which was founded about a decade ago, and that is
very odd
> in such a patriarchal part of the world.
> (edit)
>
> Umoja traces its origins not so much to political protest, however,
as to acts
> of sexual violence against the women, reportedly by British soldiers.
After
> they were raped, some of the women say, they were chased from their
homes by
> their husbands for supposedly bringing dishonor on the community.
Other Umoja
> women split from their husbands for different reasons and found
solidarity with
> others experiencing marital woes.
> (edit)"
>
> Since coming together, the women have earned enough to buy new
clothes and send
> their children to school. Many of their husbands used to insist that
the
> children take care of the livestock instead of going to school. Now
the women
> decide.
>
> "We've seen so many changes in these women," Ms. Lolosoli said.
"They're
> healthier and happier. They dress well. They used to have to beg.
Now, they're
> the ones giving out food to others."
>
> The transformation has stirred ire among some local men. One husband
erupted
> into fury when asked the other day what he thought about his wife's
new life.
> "Get out of my face," he said sternly, threatening to fight his
questioner
> before storming away.
>
> Because there is no formal divorce in Samburu culture, the husbands
sometimes
> barge into Umoja and demand that their wives come home again. The
women refuse.
> If the men grow abusive, the women run to the local authorities.
>
> "Sometimes a man will come in and want to beat his wife," said Ms.
Lolosoli,
> the chief. "He'll see that the woman's earning some money and wearing
nice
> clothes. She'll always tell him to go away. You should see his face
when she
> says, 'I don't need you anymore.' "
> (edit)
>
> Although the women say they are managing just fine without their
husbands, they
> do not completely isolate themselves from men. A few men live in
Umoja with
> their wives, while others are hired for odd jobs, to tend the cattle
or put up
> thorn fencing, activities not traditionally performed by women.
>
> That is not all. These women are still women, and they say they still
enjoy the
> company of men.
>
> "The women here are not saying they don't need men at all," said
Beatrice, a
> local schoolteacher who lives in the village after splitting up with
her
> husband. "The women are human beings and have needs. But the men who
come just
> stay for a short time and then they go. They are boyfriends. That's
all."
>
>
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> Each colony is a family unit, comprising a single egg-laying female
....The
> workers cooperate in the food gathering, nest building and rearing
offspring.
> Males are reared only at  times of year when their presence is
required.
> (Secret Life of Bees)
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