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emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
This is June’s book for the Shelterbox Book Club as soon as I held this book I could feel the love and positivity from it. I’ve not been able to finish the last 2 books from the club so as soon as I got that fuzzy feeling I know I had to dive straight in.
Here we have Nice who is a powerful, courageous lady from Kenya whose family follows the traditions of being Maasai. We follow Nice’s story from being school age, to losing her to parents to the strong, powerful courageous woman she is today.
This book is about her journey to bring an end to FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) and how she escaped from this herself.
It is a very moving and powerful read and I literally could not put it down!
Here we have Nice who is a powerful, courageous lady from Kenya whose family follows the traditions of being Maasai. We follow Nice’s story from being school age, to losing her to parents to the strong, powerful courageous woman she is today.
This book is about her journey to bring an end to FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) and how she escaped from this herself.
It is a very moving and powerful read and I literally could not put it down!
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
An excellent and accessible read. I was dreading reading a nonfiction but this is a really easy narrative and goes by super quickly. You learn so much about Nice's culture, and you learn in a way that isn't patronizing or demonizing. This is a beautiful read on an important issue and a truly magnificent advocate.
The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree is a memoir by a Maasai Kenyan woman, named Nice Leng'ete, who narrowly escaped Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) not once, but MULTIPLE times, by running away and at times hiding in Fig Trees. Also referred to as "the cut", FGM was a required rite of passage for all pubescent (and some even younger) girls, but the dangerously unsanitary and brutally painful practice was not only a form of child and gender-based abuse, but was also illegal, life-altering and potentially fatal. Forced to watch the practice at a very young age, Nice grows up traumatized, knowing that she does not want to experience the cut. With the added childhood traumas of: becoming an orphan at 8 due to AIDS claiming both of her parents in less than a year, the fatal drowning of her younger brother, separation from her siblings and neglect and abuse from some of the family members who took her in after her parent's death, it is astounding that Nice managed to survive childhood much less go on to be part of a movement which is working towards eradicating FGM practices around the world!
Nice attributes her ability to attend and graduate primary, secondary and even post secondary education (an extremely rare feat for women and even men in her community) to her several narrow escapes from FGM. Starting before she was 10, her male family members prepared to preform the rite of passage and then marry her off as a child bride so that they could obtain her dowry. Thankfully, she had some extended family members, including the man who took her in (who she calls her grandfather), who made small gestures to support her, such as hiding her overnight or agreeing to put it off for 1 year or 6 months at a time. Really, it was Nice who fought back and saved herself, but had she not had these family members on her side escaping would have likely been completely impossible. But Nice was a fighter and she managed to escape many other dangerous situations including multiple potential rape/sexual assault incidences, complete her education and receive training to help teach her community about the dangers of FGM and other unsafe practices. By taking the strategy of building competency of community members rather than imposing Western practices on the Kenyan people, organizations like Amref (the aid organization she worked with) made great strides towards creating lasting change in community practices and beliefs.
If there is one thing I take away from this book, it is the reminder that cultural change needs to come from within a culture, not an external force. Support and education are a huge piece of the puzzle, but change cannot be forced, it needs to be something that a community can be on board with otherwise it wont be sustainable and is a waste of valuable time and resources, while also (at times) leaving dangerous situations to continue indefinitely.
My love of and bachelors degree in Cultural Anthropology was definitely a huge part of why I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I think that anyone can benefit from reading Nice's story and learning about FGM and other challenges people in Kenya face. Any opportunity to hear someone's story and learn about their personal context is an opportunity to grow personally, and in many cases, professionally. Beyond that, Nice is a great story teller and the book is interesting, heart-wrenching and incredibly thought-provoking. I would highly recommend it! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Little Brown and Company, for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!
Nice attributes her ability to attend and graduate primary, secondary and even post secondary education (an extremely rare feat for women and even men in her community) to her several narrow escapes from FGM. Starting before she was 10, her male family members prepared to preform the rite of passage and then marry her off as a child bride so that they could obtain her dowry. Thankfully, she had some extended family members, including the man who took her in (who she calls her grandfather), who made small gestures to support her, such as hiding her overnight or agreeing to put it off for 1 year or 6 months at a time. Really, it was Nice who fought back and saved herself, but had she not had these family members on her side escaping would have likely been completely impossible. But Nice was a fighter and she managed to escape many other dangerous situations including multiple potential rape/sexual assault incidences, complete her education and receive training to help teach her community about the dangers of FGM and other unsafe practices. By taking the strategy of building competency of community members rather than imposing Western practices on the Kenyan people, organizations like Amref (the aid organization she worked with) made great strides towards creating lasting change in community practices and beliefs.
If there is one thing I take away from this book, it is the reminder that cultural change needs to come from within a culture, not an external force. Support and education are a huge piece of the puzzle, but change cannot be forced, it needs to be something that a community can be on board with otherwise it wont be sustainable and is a waste of valuable time and resources, while also (at times) leaving dangerous situations to continue indefinitely.
My love of and bachelors degree in Cultural Anthropology was definitely a huge part of why I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I think that anyone can benefit from reading Nice's story and learning about FGM and other challenges people in Kenya face. Any opportunity to hear someone's story and learn about their personal context is an opportunity to grow personally, and in many cases, professionally. Beyond that, Nice is a great story teller and the book is interesting, heart-wrenching and incredibly thought-provoking. I would highly recommend it! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Little Brown and Company, for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!
fast-paced
I happened across this book when browsing for a new audio book. I loved it! Nice is a human rights activist who was born in Kenya as a member of the Maasai tribe. When it came time for her to be "cut" (female genital mutilation), she ran away. She knew that girls who got the cut always dropped out of school, and she wanted an education.
She had to face down her family members and leaders from her tribe to assert her right to get an education and avoid the cut. She went onto become a vocal advocate for girls to have an alternative rite of passage to FGM. She had great sadness in her life, but she has a fierce passion and she learned how to use it.
Nice has an incredibly engaging voice and spirit. She is magnificent!
She had to face down her family members and leaders from her tribe to assert her right to get an education and avoid the cut. She went onto become a vocal advocate for girls to have an alternative rite of passage to FGM. She had great sadness in her life, but she has a fierce passion and she learned how to use it.
Nice has an incredibly engaging voice and spirit. She is magnificent!
This story was amazing! It made the act of female genital mutilation personal. Instead of getting dry facts. We are given a story of how the Cut affected one girl and her sister. Despite being a story of a horrifying act, we get Nice's full story from her earliest memory at 4 of bearing witness to a Cut ceremony throughout her life with her parents and then her extended family. Nice was a Masai woman who just wanted an education and her fight to get it. I loved this.
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
A truly inspiring read challenging FGM and challenging harmful mindsets of women in the Maasai culture.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced