The Mark of Traditional Beauty

."No one wants to harm this child" Ole Mpoe answered when told what the missionary had said. "All I want done to her is what our culture demands so that she becomes a complete woman, mature and able to take care of her own family." "But Simaloi says ... Read more

."No one wants to harm this child" Ole Mpoe answered when told what the missionary had said. "All I want done to her is what our culture demands so that she becomes a complete woman, mature and able to take care of her own family." "But Simaloi says you want to subject her to circumcision and thereafter forcibly marry her off!" Mary Anne interjected. "I would never harm my little girl. All I want is for her to get the mark of traditional beauty so that she can be made beautiful for her future husband" A young Maasai girl whose father wants her out of school to be circumcised and married off to a man she had never met, Simaloi is set on a different path from her father's and is determined to pursue her life's dream to attain western education. In the backdrop of life in a community that had stubbornly held on to age old traditions, Simaloi finds herself alone in an uncomfortable position pitted against a deeply ingrained culture in the Maasai tribe of East Africa. This is a story of courage, fortitude and grim determination in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Will she prevail? Less