U.N.I.T.Y

Umoja means unity and unifying is what these women decided to do after fleeing abusive relationships with their husbands and families. Much to the chagrin of the abusive men in their lives, they built a thriving village with successful and profitable enterprises. Unfortunately, the sour grapes at seeing these women happy and self-sufficient is bringing out the violent nature of their patriarchal counterparts.

A group of Kenyan women who fled abusive husbands to set up their own women-only community are facing increasingly violent attacks by local men angry at their success.

Turning traditional African patriarchy on its head, 15 women established Umoja village in 1990, as a refuge after their husbands' behaviour forced them to flee their homes.

Since then the village where women rule has expanded, its 48 members earning a living selling tourists brightly-coloured bead necklaces unique to their tribe, the Samburu.

However this revolution in their midst has outraged elders in the nearest town, Archer's Post, one dusty street lined with two dozen wooden shacks, in a scorched valley 200 miles north of Nairobi.

Angry young men with no money in their pockets now stop minibuses taking tourists to the nearby Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves, warning drivers against stopping at Umoja.

Gangs a dozen strong have mounted daytime raids through the thorn fence circling the village, chasing the women into the bush, beating them with clubs and threatening to torch their stick-and-dung homes.

"We do not have peace in the village now. These men are so angry because we have money and we do not give them any," said Rebecca Lolosoli, 43, Umoja's de facto chief and one of its founders.

"We ran away first because we were being beaten and now we are trying to change our lives, we are being beaten again because of how we are doing well."

I think we see milder forms of this here in America. The religious right is blaming independent women for everything from the 9/11 attacks to obesity. I also think that same mentality is what fueled the zealousness behind the prosecution of Martha Stewart. So, while many are outraged at the violence against these abused women for "making it without a man," we also need to look at the similar history that has always been a part of America's male dominated society as well as the push, by some, to take it back there.