Sophia: A Pioneer of Education in
Samburu
Mary Willson
“You must always remember you are
privileged, the most privileged in the world,”
Sophia Lapuchirit was the first woman
from Samburu, a north central part of Kenya to go to school.
Pronounced
Sophie, Sophia in the Samburu language means brown. Sophia has deep brown skin,
and striking dark eyes. Wearing traditional necklace beading and a bright patterned
headscarf, I talked with her under a thatched roof shade structure with the mid
morning Kenyan sun beating down. She is bright and striking, just as her story
is. She is an icon of empowerment and courage.
Growing up
in a middle class household in a college town, my parents both are educated. It
has never crossed my mind not to go to college, which is the reality of most
middle class Americans—school is life for at least the first 18 years. The
magic of education seems lost in the pressure of it all, a stark reality in
juxtaposition that was made starkly real as Sophia explained her story, which
all started with a punishment, being sent to school.
A catholic
priest came to Samburu when Sophia was young, and offered to bring some
children to school.
“My mother
said, ‘take this one, she doesn’t help out around the house, take Sophia,’ I
was a rebel, and it was punishment,” her mom sending her away was the best gift
her mother could have given her. “School was a better life. In the village we
only ate one meal a day. Porridge mixed with milk. I was a skeleton, I was so
thin. We used to starve, there was just not enough food.”
Sophia’s
father has four wives, with thirteen children between them all. Sophia was the
only one to go to school. No one could have known that she would get a masters
degree, work high level professional jobs, support her own family and give dozens
of scholarships throughout her community. She is a flower rising out of the vast
sub-Saharan ground.
“Secondary
school was hard, my father wanted me to be married off,” Sophia explained. “I
went through female genital mutilation, as every girl did.”
Female genital mutilation is
illegal now, yet it is still practiced in pastoral communities. As Sophia is
now 52 years old, there was no protection from the then-cultural norm.
“It was very cruel, I have one daughter and I
will make sure that will never happen to her. It is a culture; in the Samburu
they were stopping girls from freedom. It is just oppression.”
The
catholic priest saved Sophia and took her back to school. She could no longer go home after that, or
she would be married off in an arranged marriage, made with “Bride Prices” of
seven cows, tobacco and sugar.
“The women are property, they have no rights
after female genital mutilation. They are beaten by their husband, and they are
not the only wife. It is total oppression.” Sophia explained.
Her community did not accept her
changing the norm and fighting what she is normally expected to become,
property and child bearer. “My uncle said I was brining bad luck to my family,
I was just a taboo.”
Sophia knew
that education is key to change, so she got good grades throughout school. A
district commissioner noticed this and was the second positive supporter for
her education strife.
“He said ‘the samburu girl is doing
very very well, her parents can not pay for this,’” and the paid for Sophia to
go to the University of Nairobi.
The passion
for education is visible in Sophia’s voice as she narrates her path to get to
college. What makes Sophia amazing is obvious, yet the passion for something
that is so taken granted of in the US is astounding. Having the passion for an
education come strictly from the heart and not from any societal pressures for
success is hard to relate to, as the passion that Sophia has to push her
through so many hardships comes from a raw motivation to brighten her own
future.
“When I
went to the university of Nairobi, it was heaven. I have never seen anything
like it. The houses, the cars, the food, the freedom!”
When Sophia
went to the University of Nairobi, it was the first time she was in an
atmosphere that supported her education.
“The
cultural freedom was like magic. In the village we put the hide of cow down and
all sleep on it together. In the university I had my own room, and I bought
myself a radio, I saw my first TV.”
Sophia’s
first time wearing pants was in secondary school, yet she was always expected
to wear skirts and dresses. In Nairobi, was the first time she could wear jeans
and tee shirts. Out of the 3,000 students at the university, only 20 were from
pastoralist communities like her.
She
graduated with a bachelor in arts of economics and went on to be a district
officer of the president.
“That is
when I started using my name to motivate girls to go to school. I become a breadwinner
for my family. I finally made them proud of me then because I could provide. I
even bought clothes for everyone I knew. I became a star in the village; they
would say ‘did you hear about the job Sophia has in the city?!’ I am so so
proud of the fact that I acquired an education in a community that doesn’t
value education.”
She was
only 22 then, and was the talk of the town, a hero whom has overcome a life of struggles
on an unimaginable scale in only her second decade of life.
“I am very
proud that god game me that opportunity.”
After
working, she went on to get her masters education in human resources, and was
elected to be in the National Anti-Corruption Campaign Steering Committee.
She then
started sponsoring children to go to school themselves. She currently supports
18 students in secondary school, through an organization she started in Samburu,
and her family individually.
“I am
bitter because I pay for my sisters kids to go to school because she never went
to school and therefore cannot educate her own children.”
Quality of
life is a cycle that can only be broken through education.
“I know how
someone can have success but it is so overwhelming because I cannot help the
reality. Even if I give them clothes today, who will give them clothes
tomorrow?”
Sophia has
three kids of her own with a man she was married to through the University of Nairobi.
“They tell others ‘my mother has a masters education and she comes from a small
village, so I can get a masters education too.” They all are college
graduates now and in successful careers.
Sophia’s
success is measurable on only an extreme scale of dedication and passion, yet
her journey is far from finished. She is now trying to be elected in the Kenyan
parliament to change the education situation on a larger scale.
“It is hard
because the Samburu do not respect girls, and will not elect them, yet politics
is the only way to get money and therefore education. Politics move things, it
is the way to create change.”
The culture
of Samburu is changing, as the power that education brings is being realized.
Sophia is the pioneer of this. “There is not a day I do not lecture someone
about education. I say ‘why do you not have your children to go to school, look
at the opportunities!.’”
Next time I
am weighing getting up for an early class or finishing that last essay,
remembering that Sophia has dedicated her life for fighting for others to
eventually get what the US is gifted makes the choice un-weighable.
When I
asked Sophia what she would tell someone in the US reading this is, as I do at
the end of any interviews, she said the most profound closing statement that
resonates powerfully. She reminded me how lucky I am to be writing this, how
lucky you are to be able to read it, and how lucky we are all to have
opportunities in front of us to become anything we want to be. We have power.
“You are
really lucky to be an American. You are lucky to go to school. You should always
know you are privileged, the most privileged in the world. There are children
here struggling to get one meal a day, and you do not have to struggle to get
an education.”
