ENTASOPIA, Kenya—In a remote, deeply traditional corner of southern Kenya, thousands of young Maasai girls wearing black and white robes and with blood sprinkled on their foreheads dance in the light of dawn. Loudly, enthusiastically, they sing traditional songs with the support of a choir and gifted drummers. In the town of Entasopia, the girls are undergoing a rite of passage that resembles the tribe’s customary coming-of-age ceremony—but without the usual horror of genital mutilation.
“I am very happy because I will not be married off at this age,” says 12-year-old Joan Siyuama as she drinks raw blood from a slaughtered bull to signify her ascendance to adulthood after participating in the ceremony. “I will now go to school and achieve my dream of becoming a doctor.”
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