The Land of No Men: Inside Kenya's Women-Only Village

[Music] i'm trying to do like a two-foot skank and it is not dropping i never felt so white in my life [Music] amongst the samburu tribes of northern kenya where the desert merges with the foothills of mount kenya women have been living under a harsh patriarchal system for as long as they can remember female genital mutilation has been one of the most important rituals amongst the samburu for generations once circumcised a girl can be given away in an arranged marriage to start her own family this practice has seen girls as young as 12 get married to men old enough to be their grandfathers but this year obama's visit to kenya put women's rights at the forefront of national dialogue around the world there is a tradition of repressing women treating women and girls as second-class citizens those are bad traditions they need to change there's no reason that young girls should suffer genital mutilation there's no place in civilized society for the early or forced marriage of children these traditions may date back centuries they have no place in the 21st century while the world has just taken note 25 years ago a group of fed up women led an exodus and took matters into their own hands to free themselves and started a movement in the samburu region creating the first village where no men were allowed the establishment of a moja was an inspiration to many women in neighboring villages who have risen up to take control of their local governments so we travel to kenya to road trip through the samburu district and see what life is like in a matriarchal society [Music] we are on our way to the emoji village which is an all-female village which started in 1990 by a woman called rebecca rebecca lola solly is the matriarch of the immoja women's village and an advocate for women's rights growing up as a member of the samburu tribe she married at the age of 18 and began speaking up about helping women who were victims of rape by british soldiers training near her home local men angered by her vocalism beat her until she was hospitalized when her husband did not protest the beatings she left him and along with several other women who were survivors of violence established the women's village of emojia what was once solely a safe haven for women has now become a globally known example of a successful matriarchy the internet has put a moja firmly on the map and now people travel far and wide to come and see how the land of no men thrives in the region of simburu [Music] i think that was a welcome and welcome just get a cup of tea at my ass that's it so far it's super nice everything seems really identic did you see the welcome though oh my gosh every single one can sing as well every single one of them ladies can sing so we're about to have a sit-down chat with rebecca and hopefully she's gonna explain to me how emoji came to be the pros and cons of living in an all-female society and just shed some light what life is like here in immersion village i rebecca [Music] and you know like that's how the house looks like ah nice this is now the big bedroom that's the small bedroom it's the kitchen amazing it smells so good and to the women to all the renovations and build all the houses build all the houses let me just tell you how we started as a woman you have no right if the husband wants to kill you you have a right to kill you anytime because you are like a property and in the sampuru culture have you ever heard of a woman village so they they say we have to destroy this village we say we are not going to move let them kill us and make history of killing all of the women in this village we decided to do small business selling our jewelry on the road went towards are passing we welcome them and they buy our things when we are here when we started sailing we found the men beat the women and they took away the money do you think the men felt threatened by yeah the women being able to make their own money they do with the ability to generate income the women of emojia have found independence so every morning we have to come and display our things this is what we depend on yeah this is our living which one did you make really it's nice this is amazing i read that i read that you met hillary clinton yes i met her well yeah she's a good friend of mine how is she yeah there you go yeah yes because somebody women we are following our footsteps to be more strong and strong as women we have said what can we do with this money so we decided to make to start a school i've never had such a spring in my step about going to school rebecca hi oh god it's not only from umajia it's for all of her even from the villages the men's villages [Music] we decided to build the school yeah because we have seen education is very important yeah and we don't want our children to be like us we want them to have to have a light in their life to have good education and to know what's going on in this world women in nemosia are still having children and sons are welcome as long as they are willing to follow the village rules and do not try to dominate the women although no grown men are allowed to live in emojia the women are still open to relationships and often rendezvous with boyfriends outside the village you're saying in the beginning that you is having to deal with a lot of sort of problems from the men in the surrounding villages just kind of being jealous little basically about your success we still have that problem but it's it's not as big as before they say i'm bringing a bad culture to them but i know one day one time they will not cut these girls again angry husbands occasionally come to emoji searching for their wives the women of the village stay up all night in shifts to protect each other the veteran women live side by side with the younger refugees who have recently fled to emojia to escape the cultural rituals still prevalent in their [Music] communities and how do you feel about what rebecca teaches would you do you want to find a husband one day and have kids [Music] lean ever so whilst you might think that a moja's demographic would mainly be older women it is also home to many young women who have sworn off men completely so it doesn't seem like there's an awful lot to do to pass the time in a major village but the huts that the ladies make need constant maintenance so i'm about to go and literally get my hands dirty in cow [Music] some just some chicks doing diy [Music] claim basically but but warm imagine what what hot cowship feels like [Music] we come we've seen we bought beads and we're out thanks ladies [Applause] what a wicked way to say get out my house love we've had enough i'm filled with joy and and love and and a little bit of cow dung emoji has now become an accepted part of the samburu landscape but not everyone is happy about it by providing a safe haven for local women it has also become a threat to some local men so on my second day in the district i went to meet a man nearby whose wife had rejected him to live in the village so you think that if emoji didn't exist your wife would still be with you metis oh well that's good to hear for you all is not lost you can you can get another wife are you angry that your wife left you [Music] [Music] well i guess haters are gonna hate no matter what yesterday we went to go and visit emojia an all-female village where no men are allowed since the moja similar villages have appeared men are allowed in these villages but women still have the overriding say what i'm hoping is that it's also a safe haven for the submissive men of kenya just to be clear we've got rebecca's blessing because um these villages are kind of the trickle down from emojia and so we can't do any of this without her say so as the leader of ammonia rebecca dictates who is allowed in and out of the wider community [Applause] [Applause] i think this was the ceremony we just drank some goat milk delicious recommend it and we're gonna go and see what's going on [Music] so a big part of how these villages survive is on tourism which means when you come you better buy some beads such a shame [Music] so many be so many mini beads as you can see another tourist truck has come we've been upstaged by some germans fair enough they're buying beads um we're going to speak with the chair lady of nachome oh i'm good thank you probably enough enough goats to look for a lifetime yeah got my beads down got my goat's milk got my mat there's no men at all you have men here can you tell me what role the men have if you're the chair lady you're not you're not you are [Music] men who are allowed to live among the women here must reject the traditional sampuri principles and agree to a new way of thinking it was time to speak to an enlightened man who chose to live in the shami hello hi hi uh i'm michelle i'm eva eva nice to meet you ever yeah and do you live here yeah i live here yeah yeah and we got one yeah i'll only marry one one one wife mainly because if you marry four wives you laugh for problems yeah i don't want me to be more greater than her you know yeah you want just to do the same and the work will work the same it's quite it's quite um a modern way of thinking right yeah quite a modern man it's true yeah so we need we need trailblazers like you yes guys like you out there letting other guys know like hey this makes sense man yeah what the xiaomi showed me is that the message of equality is spreading to younger generations no it's only love each other there you have it proof that men and women can be equal unfortunately it's all the way in bloody africa though see you later that was really fun and um [Music] i'm just now feeling the effects of drinking hot coats milk in the hot sun and being in a truck with no suspension i feel like i'm just gonna out a log of cheese later with the network of matriarchal villages growing many men in the samburu tribes are discovering female empowerment for the first time which scares most of them right outside nishami i stopped to talk to two local men about their views on the changing culture in samburu custom the tribes are run by a collective of male elders who rule with complete authority first i wanted to speak with a man from a traditional samburu society to understand the nature of change in the region what are your views on men who live in villages where women do you think that you can keep tradition and have some equality what do you think about women in omanja and surrounding villages do you think a society can only work if there's men there [Music] we're about to meet a man who's part of a matriarchal society we've had to meet him here in the middle of nowhere because he doesn't want the women to find out but apparently he says the truth must be told so we're going to get to find out how he thinks that this has affected tradition can you tell me what life is like living in an all-female village every village i've been to and all the women i've spoken to all of them across the board agree that they would like female circumcision to stop zomburu [Music] then [Music] is [Music] although female genital mutilation is banned in the country over 80 percent of zambiri brides still undergo the procedure as villages such as emojis start to outlaw this practice hope of eradicating female circumcision spreads throughout northern kenya on our third day we hope to get more insight on the matter this is super village which seems to be part of the matriarchal wave that has sprung from mammogia it's a pretty nice way to be greeted we are very happy to see you and you are most welcome to our village marianne the chair lady here has created a matriarchal village similar to nishami except here the gender roles are differentiated the men carry out the physical labor while the women make the rules i started from new motor and then i stayed in memorial for almost four years and then i shifted this place long days we don't have rights so if the men say we have to do this we have so we have to follow them but nowadays and the women's staff they are all right because they can make their things and they have their own money yeah and they can say they don't want students to get circumcised and they can say that our daughters must go to schools how do the men feel who live here that they're not in their traditional role for a man actually they feel bad they feel bad when we have that our right they think that we are losing their traditional what is it that you think that bothers men the most do you think it's that they're losing their tradition as in they that you guys have freedom of speech or do you think it's the tradition of female circumcision or do you think it's the fact that you guys have your own money circumcisions from what i know that it's it's hard to get married if you're if you're not circumcised as a woman but i suppose you don't need to get married if you have your own money yeah most of the ladies nowadays they don't like to get married they go to school and they work and they get money and there are no circumstance if you are not circumcised and you assemble nobody can marry you so now they say don't bother about marriage do you think that in the future men will want an educated woman who makes her own money [Music] i don't think so are you aware that the world is fascinated with the story of ammonia and the surrounding villages what you guys are doing here is something that most of us haven't seen before and i think you're doing a great job of it and you guys are doing it with style and grace and beautiful beads if you was a young woman today you're 18 years old would you get married no no no definitely no every woman i've asked i'm like would you get married they're like no [Applause] really yeah we don't give men power because we give them that chance they will spoil it right yeah men always it up so marion was just explaining to me that uh in this village a lot of the men do just the manpower things basically like going to get water and letting the goats out in the morning and fixing a fence and stuff [Music] how do you enjoy i loved it i had such a nice time i've never seen anything like this before you know like a where women run things [Applause] we're here at our final matriarchal village called nagida i'm hoping that this time i'll get some suspect liquid flicked on my face instead of having to drink goat's milk [Music] i again the ghost milkman i mean not black is [Applause] is can i just say that was my kind of welcome short sweet bit of goat's milk on my forehead bang that out nice and quick we're done [Music] i couldn't leave somebody without asking these ladies one last burning question i wanted to ask because i've been traveling to all these different villages i have the worst period and they last for like eight days is there like one week where everyone's like it's coming my period is coming something's gonna do [Music] what do you do out here when you have your period use sanctuary towels and then where would you like how do you dispose of them [Applause] thank you so much for telling me because i've been wondering the whole time i'm here i'm like what would i do out here if i came on my period rebecca's influence on women in the samburu region has created a trickle-down effect of women power fueled by the matriarchal uprising long-standing traditions that threaten the women of kenya are being challenged with access to education and their own income mini sunbury women are taking the future into their own hands for the first time in history when they call us women it's like a dating name we work and we talk and we laugh let us tell them that we are happy and we have to be proud we are women [Music] you

Channel: VICE Life

Views: 12,086,812

Rating: 4.8716993 out of 5

Keywords: Broadly, Women, girls, feminism, girl gang, witches, witches of bushwick, female, documentary, documentaries, interview, interviews, culture, wild, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, underground, videos, funny, funny videos, journalism, vice guide, vice presents, vice news, vbs.tv, vice.com, vice, vice magazine, vice mag, vice videos, Samburu, no men, Africa, Northern Kenya, matriarchal villages, patriarchy

Id: UrnmBLB-UX4

Length: 26min 33sec (1593 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 09 2015

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[u/unbotheredfeminist]

"And we have to be proud we are women" 🙌🏻❤️

[u/lauv145]

So shameless pride but these women are from my tribe😌

[u/NurseBubbleGum]

Those women are brave and amazing. You know, every documentary I've seen about matriarchal societies has seemed so nice.

Can you imagine how much we as women could accomplish without men around naysaying...

[u/laylamiller]

This is why when people say women are catty I know they're ignorant or catty themselves because, the happiest women that I've ever met were nuns. I know this because I stayed at a rooming house run by nuns once. There were a few who just had bad personalities but the majority didn't. It was so peaceful in general.

Women who CHOSE(choice is key) not to spend time with men I've noticed are generally happier.

I think once you spend less time around men you see how little they matter to your life. Not long after staying at the religious boarding house I read a book called, "Chastity as Autonomy". You know how you read something and it makes perfect sense in that it seems to be speaking your thoughts? In this case it was about early Christian history and why women converted after hearing the apostles preach. It was mostly folk myths but it went into detail about the culture and history women's lives in the late Roman Empire and why a life of chastity would be appealing and even romantic to many women.

ETA: : Chastity as Autonomy: Women in the Stories of Apocryphal Acts by Virginia Burrus

[u/phoebalogna]

“What are your views on men who live in villages where women have the overriding say?”

“It’s not a good thing in my opinion. The women who live in female villages, they cannot be controlled. ... Their husbands refuse to live with them because they have become big-headed.”

Ladies that’s all we needed to hear, they fear women having any type of say in any matter because they’re insecure and power hungry.

[u/laserkatze]

Just imagine where we would be if there were no „alpha“ men holding humanity back. We‘d probably have a frickin space port for regular flights to neighboring intelligent life.

[u/level_up_always]

i saw this a while back and it was great. heartbreaking stories. we shouldn't have to be abused to want to live in community with other women either it should be normalized. i also love the one of the village ruled by women (edit:typo) and they just invite them over to fuck when they want it or bring them food then basically tell them to piss off and don't take them seriously while all the crone elders are making the big decisions lol it was awesome think it's been posted here before.

[u/havingababypenguin]

Look how beautiful they are. Proof that we don't dress ourselves for male validation.