Warrior Princess: My Quest To Become The First Female Maasai Warrior

by Mindy Budgor

Overview

Only the combination of cultural curiosity, passion, fearlessness and a set of Jewish parents breathing fire down her neck could lead a sane human being to buy a one-way ticket to Nairobi and face probable death in an effort to become the world's first female Maasai warrior.Warrior Princess is the funny and inspirational memoir of Mindy Budgor, a young entrepreneur tired of having a job to have a job, who decides to make changes in her life. While waiting for her Business School applications to go through, she decides to volunteer in Africa, building schools and hospitals in the Maasai Mara. While living and working with the Maasai, Mindy talks to the chief and asks him why there are no women warriors. The chief responds simply and derisively: because women are not strong enough or brave enough. Mindy immediately realizes her calling and thus begins her amazing adventure to become the first female Maasai warrior. As a result of this training and advocacy, the Maasai in Loita, Kenya are leading the charge to change tribal law to allow women to become Maasai warriors. Mindy as a tribe member is ready to return to stand with her fellow warriors against whatever opposition they might face – be it lions, or elephants, or Western influence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762786039
Publisher:	Skirt!
Publication date:	09/10/2013
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Only the combination of cultural curiosity, passion, fearlessness and a set of Jewish parents breathing fire down her neck could lead a sane human being to buy a one-way ticket to Nairobi and face probable death in an effort to become the world's first female Maasai warrior. Mindy Budgor embodies that combination. In her junior year at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Mindy started her first business, CollegeButler, a concierge service for undergrads. She sold the company several years later and worked at a small sports marketing agency. She also managed early-stage investments for the agency's CEO. In 2009, after leaving her marketing job, Mindy's career was at a standstill. Unsure what she wanted to do next, she simultaneously applied to business school and bought a multi-stop plane ticket to Bangladesh and Kenya to explore her interests in social enterprises in developing countries. After completing a two-month microfinance internship in Dhaka, Mindy traveled to Kenya. While volunteering to build a clinic in the Maasai Mara, she met several members of the Maasai, a semi-nomadic tribe, which led to the journey detailed in Warrior Princess. Mindy hopes Warrior Princess will bring attention to her tribe and empower readers to slap complacency in the face and take the reins in their own lives.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Dinosaur! ix

1 The Itch 1

2 Habari! 13

3 Sealing the Deal 25

4 Two for the Road 39

5 New York to Nairobi 56

6 Into the Bush 71

7 Warrior Bootcamp 99

8 Trekking & Target Practice 129

9 Braiding Hair & Drinking Blood 146

10 Playing Hooky 182

11 Hunger 196

12 The Rhino Clan 213

13 The Tribes Gather 226

14 Passing the Torch 239

15 A Double-Edged Sword 251

Epilogue 261

Appendix: The Plank Letters 265

Acknowledgments 275

About the Author 276

Editorial Reviews

"Some of us face our fears and some of us make our fears face us. In her engaging memoir, Warrior Princess, Mindy Budgor does both with grace, grit, and good humor."—Jaimal Yogis, best-selling author of The Fear Project and Saltwater Buddah "Warrior Princess is funny, charming, and surprisingly uplifting. I enjoyed this courageous and transforming journey." —Julie Klam, best-selling author of Friendkeeping

From the Publisher

The spirited but problematic account of how a "plump, white, Gucci-wearing Jewish girl from California" traveled to Kenya to challenge the Maasai tradition of male-only warriors. Budgor was a successful young entrepreneur living in Chicago, but after she sold her first business, she found herself "consistently questioning [her] purpose in life." While waiting to hear back from MBA programs and on the advice of a college friend, the author decided to go to Maasai Mara in Kenya to help build a clinic. The simplicity of the Maasai lifestyle made her realize "how so many things in [her own] life were manufactured or determined by everyone else but [her]." She needed to learn how to empower herself. After a Maasai chief told her that women lacked the strength and bravery to become warriors, Budgor knew what her next mission would be. She would show everyone, especially Maasai females, that a woman could indeed become a moran. First, she told her parents that her efforts to become a warrior were part of a marketing plan for a sports clothing company (the CEO of which never returned her emails). The tradition-bound chief, however, refused to allow Budgor and a friend she brought back to Kenya to undergo warrior initiation. But another Maasai who had always wanted to give women "more respectable roles" took the pair into the forest. There, he and a group of fellow tribesmen taught the pair how to slaughter goats, drink blood, throw spears and survive hostile encounters with elephants, hippos, leopards and buffaloes. In this memoir with chutzpah to spare, Budgor chronicles how she and her friend ultimately did become morans. However inspiring and well-intended their efforts, though, their actions still smack of cultural imperialism.

Kirkus Reviews