The Kenyan flag is horizontal, a tricolour of black, white-edged red, and green with two crossed white spears behind a red, white, and black Maasai shield.

During my youth Jomo Kenyatta was the big guy, the first president of Kenya after colonialism. At the present, the fourth president is Uhuru, his son.

One of Kenya’s tribes are the Maasai. While most of us are familiar with the Maasai warriors, the meat eating and blood drinking nomadic herdsmen, we know little of Maasai woman.

Maasai women in Kenya are victims of poverty and cultural oppression. Girls 11 to 13 are circumcised and married to a man of their father’s choice.
Generally they are not allowed to divorce; they are also not allowed to remarry if the husband dies. They become the property of the husband’s brother.

The Maasai woman is one of multiple wives and she bears many children. Her life span is 45 years.

I was going to name my little Maasai girl bear Harambee. Harambee stands for Unity, for pulling together.
But I changed my mind about her name, because I want her to be a symbol of freedom. And the Swahili word for freedom, understood across most of Africa is Uhuru.

I googled “famous Maasai women” and was surprised to find two of them. One is Linah Kilimo, who brought the issue of female genital mutilation into the lime light.
The other one is Nice Nailantei Leng’ete, a human rights activist who advocates for alternate rites of passage for girls. She has saved an estimated 15,000 girls from genital mutilation.

Uhuru, may you wander out into the world as a loving, educated, little friend with lots of love to give to a little girl in Africa.