A daring woman of firsts

Kate Ferguson’s report about a woman who broke the guide mould.

As the shadows grow long across the stark expanse of the Maasai Mara game reserve, I find myself sitting in an open-air Land Rover just 3m from a pride of lions as the cubs feast on their mother’s wildebeest catch.

The wide, open plains of the Masai Mara are home to the Maasai people as well as lions.

And as the sun sets, I turn to my only companion - ranger guide Lucy Ketere, her hands in control of the steering wheel while her smile, joyful and unrestrained, illuminates among the fading golden light.

“Those cubs remind me of the Out of Africa pride. Strong and energetic,” says Lucy.

I look back, as a small cub - around four months old - breaks away from its pride. Inquisitive, it playfully jumps about, before approaching the truck with a mixture of caution and delight. Its mother watches on with equal vigour.

“And daring,” I add, with a reciprocal smile.

Strong, energetic and daring: characteristics found throughout the Mara. As we drive back to camp, I get chatting with Lucy about her life, I discover they’re characteristics that resound within her, too.

As day turns to night, I hear the story of 28-year-old Lucy Ketere, the strong, energetic and daring woman of firsts. As a child, Lucy walked 15km a day to school and back through the Mara — with its lion prides, herds of elephants and packs of hyenas. There was no two-way radio or four-wheel drive to aid in her travels - just her feet and her instincts.

“I loved it. I would go out, following the tracks and the droppings of the animals, listening to the calls from the birds,” she says.

And it was here, in this wild and often dangerous landscape, that Lucy realised her love of the natural world and hatched a plan to become something she had heard very little about - a ranger guide.

Little did Lucy realise this was not a job for women, especially Maasai women.

“Then it was more of a man’s job,” she says. “They’d never seen a lady doing this.”

Lucy grew up in the Talek area of the Maasai Mara in a village called Ntipilikwani, where women are a valuable commodity for their farming families; they’re often married as young as 13 years of age and are traded for cattle, the community’s main source of livelihood. The number of cattle depends on the woman’s beauty and domestic talent. It is a polygamous culture, and the man’s first marriage is arranged - from there on, he chooses his wives. They, too, are traded for cattle.

Once married, the new wife builds her own hut made from mud, sticks and cow dung, next to the other wives. But in a first for Ntipilikwani, Lucy did not want to get married; she wanted to become a ranger guide.

“From the beginning it was really hard because my dad was thinking if I went to school, I would get educated, not like the life in the village any more and run away to the city,” she says.

Despite Lucy bucking the village traditions, her brother supported her decision, eventually convincing her father to warm to the idea a little.

“At the time he was like, ‘No, I don’t think you will make this. You better choose something else. Not tour guiding’, and I told him, ‘Just give me a chance’,” she says.

In 2004, Lucy left Ntipilikwani for Nairobi to receive a higher education, before applying for the Koiyaki Guiding School, which was entering its second year.

It trains local Maasai school leavers as ranger guides, making them employable by the local safari parks and highlighting the importance of wildlife conservation within their communities. It’s reliant solely on private funding from charities, a safari camp and sponsors. In 2005, Lucy received $US2300 ($3028) in sponsorship from an American couple, which paid for her education at Koiyaki, making her one of the first female guides to undergo training at the school.

It was there Lucy learnt the tricks of her trade, going from not driving at all to learning how to navigate a large Land Rover through the mud, while reading the Mara and the movements, migrations and behaviours of its wildlife.

“It’s heavy duty,” she says. “You have to change tyres, you have to keep watch.”

Following her graduation from Koiyaki, Lucy was hired by andBeyond as a ranger guide.

“They gave me two months and I just got better and better. A year went past, two years, four years. Now it has been seven years and I couldn’t be happier,” she says. Lucy has since married and is now the mother of nine-month-old twins - a balancing act supported by her employer and her community. “After my schooling, I come to work and go back to the village and stay with my family,” she says.

“It has really opened their eyes. What they thought was really wrong, now they are happy about. They’re really happy I went to school and that I didn’t run away from home. It has really left a good impression in the community.” These days, you’ll find Lucy working as a ranger guide at andBeyond’s Kichwa Tembo and Bateleur tented camps in the Maasai Mara. They’ve hosted guests from all over the world, including fashion designers and celebrities such as Meg Ryan and Brad Pitt.

Lucy is also a well-regarded spokesperson within the Mara and frequently visits local schools to discuss the importance of women’s education and wildlife conversation. As for female ranger guides, 20 per cent of the 197 graduates from Koiyaki guiding school are Maasai women - a proportion that is expected to increase due to the likes of Lucy Ketere.

“It has proven that women can do just a good a job,” she says. “Now other girls can go to school and get an education like me.”

Kate Ferguson was a guest of andBeyond and Air Mauritius.

FACT FILE

For more information, see andbeyond.com and airmauritius.com.