LESULA
from a Masai Village in Narok, Kenya
Lesula is tribal Masai woman and in independent artist who makes beaded African jewelry by hand.
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The Masai are one of the most impoverished tribes in East Africa, living a nomadic lifestyle raising cattle and goats. Typically, a Masai girl is circumcised between the ages of 11 and 13, and soon after married to a man chosen by her father in exchange for cattle and cash. A Masai woman will have many children, regardless of her health or ability to provide for them. She will rise early everyday to milk cows and spend her days walking miles to water holes. She will live a life of few physical comforts, dependent on a husband and a family she did not choose.
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Lesula, who once believed, like many others she was destined to live a life of poverty and cultural oppression, is now building herself a career of choice.
