Sat, Feb 20, 2010 page3

• FEATURE : Korogocho’s grandmas fight back

  • AFP
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  At the age of 60, 80 or maybe 100, the karateka grandmas of the Korogocho slum are learning the rudiments of martial arts in order to survive in one of Kenya’s most dangerous shanty towns.

  Only a dozen or so kilometers from the heart of the capital Nairobi, Korogocho’s residents — all 155,000 of them — are crammed into an area measuring just 1.5km².

  Most of the young people survive by scavenging what they can from the giant rubbish heap at neighboring Dandora. Even venturing into one of the main streets in broad daylight to queue at a water point is a calculated risk.

  

  An elderly woman learns the rudiments of martial arts in order to survive in Korogocho, one of Kenya’s most dangerous shanty towns, on Jan. 30.

  PHOTO: AFP

  So, in this sun-baked universe of mud bricks and rusting corrugated iron, devoid of vegetation, the mat of the “Streams of Hope and Peace” association looks like a haven of tranquility and optimism.

  A plastic cover gives some shelter from the sun and the corrugated iron has been painted in bright colors.

  Inside, about 20 elderly women, barefoot and clad in shapeless dresses and headscarves, are sitting in a circle on a mat encouraging one of their number who is hitting a punch bag yelling “No.”

  The blows lack force, but according to the women’s teacher, Sheila Kariuki, that’s not the crucial thing.

  “You don’t need to hit hard to be accurate,” said Kariuki, a youngster by comparison to her charges at 29. “Accuracy is the key to the technique.”

  She demonstrates the vulnerable points on a young man acting as guinea pig for the class — the nose, chin, collarbone and, of course, the genitals.

  This self-defense group began in 2007 as way of fighting back at the young bandits of Korogocho who took to raping women three or four times their age.

  “Every time the boys make a robbery, they will ask the grandmas to sleep with them,” explained Mary Wangui, 73, who was one of the oldest pupils and is now a teacher. “Young men believe that young girls are all infected with AIDS, so they’d rather go to the old ones because they know we don’t have any more partners.”

  The undisputed star of this particular group is Gladys Wanjiku, who thinks she must be “about 100” — an idea that seems surprising when you see her hit the punch bags with measured, confident blows.

  If a man with evil intent comes close, “I will hit him,” she said, smiling.

  Fortunately, Wanjiku has been spared being attacked so far.

  “I pray so much for them not to come,” she explained. “If a young man wants to rape me, now I know where to hit.”

  She likes the practice.

  “I feel so much better and my body feels so light after the training,” she said.

  Kariuki, who holds her classes on a voluntary basis, was herself trained by an American woman in the self-defense techniques developed by US feminists in the 1970s.

  She in turn teaches her elderly students “a mixture of karate, kungfu and taekwondo.”

  Kariuki harbors no illusions about the chances of the police providing protection and so also trains the women how to negotiate and how to overcome their fear.

  “I teach them to yell, which is the opposite of screaming,” she said. “When you yell, you are in control, relaxed, telling the world that you don’t like what these young boys are doing to you and telling them to stop. The police help, but their number is very few. Our program does make a difference. We have testimonies of old women now able to defend themselves using verbal or physical techniques.”
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