Girls in the Wild Fig Tree: How One Girl Fought to Save Herself, Her Sister and Thousands of Girls Worldwide

Nice Leng'ete was raised in a Maasai village in Kenya, and her parents fell sick and died in 1998. Nice and her sister Soila were taken in by their father's brother, who had little interest in the girls beyond their dowries. Nice and Soila climbed a tree to hide from the cut, which was the fate of all Maasai women. Nice hoped to find a way to avoid the cut forever, but Soila understood it would be impossible. After Soila chose to undergo the surgery, sacrificing herself to save Nice, their lives diverged. Nice postponed receiving the cut, continued her education, and became the first in her family to attend college. Supported by Amref, Nice used visits home to set an example for what an uncut Maasai woman can achieve, and the village has since ended FGM entirely. Nice's journey from a heartbroken child and community outcast to a leader of the Maasai is an inspiration and a reminder that every girl is worth saving.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 14 September 2021
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group

Nice Leng'ete was raised in a Maasai village in Kenya, where her parents fell sick and died when she was six. Her father's brother took her and her sister Soila in, but had little interest in them beyond their dowries. Fearing female genital mutilation (FGM), a painful and sometimes deadly ritualistic surgery, Nice and Soila climbed a tree to hide. Nice hoped to find a way to avoid the cut forever, but Soila understood it would be impossible. After Soila chose to undergo the surgery, sacrificing herself to save Nice, their lives diverged. Soila married, dropped out of school, and had children in her teenage years, while Nice postponed receiving the cut, continued her education, and became the first in her family to attend college.

Supported by Amref, Nice used visits home to set an example for what an uncut Maasai woman can achieve. Other women listened, and the elders finally saw the value of intact, educated girls as the way of the future. The village has since ended FGM entirely, and Nice continues the fight to end FGM throughout Africa and the world.

Nice's journey from a heartbroken child and community outcast to a leader of the Maasai is an inspiration and a reminder that one person can change the world, and every girl is worth saving.

Weight: 456g
Dimension: 163 x 240 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472275806