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Article: It Takes a Village to Make a Doctor; Masai Tribesmen, Who Once Revered the Warrior, Help a Student
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- May 4, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Many of the hundreds of Masai who gathered at this village's
secondary school one recent Sunday could not read or write. They had
never set foot in a classroom. And the few who had never got past
elementary school.
Yet those things did not seem to matter. For the people of
this village had come together to celebrate the extraordinary
ambition of Wilson Naiyomah.
Naiyomah, 19, wants to be a doctor. His ambition is
extraordinary because Masai do not do medicine. They do cattle.
There has been no higher calling.
Until now.
In recent years, the Masai tribe, arguably Africa's best-known
and most glamorized ethnic group, has battled to shuck its image as
a people passionately ...