The No. 1 Ladies Maasai Mechanic
By Jeremy O’Kasick |
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When people told Hellen Lovukenya that she couldn't make a living fixing cars, she simply didn't listen to them. "You are a woman! You are Maasai!" they said. "Exactly," she responded. "I can do whatever I want to do." Today Lovukenya happens to be one of Thomson Safaris' most gifted mechanics and a role model for women in Tanzania.
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Elbow-deep in engine grease, head buried beneath
the hood of a Land Rover Defender, Hellen Lovukenya
fiddles with the wiring of a voltage regulator. She’s
determined to get the Thomson Safaris vehicle back up
and running.
As
Thomson’s ace auto-electrician, Lovukenya has
zeroed in on the glitch and fixed it. Ten minutes later,
the Rover starts up with a roar — alternator and
battery fully charged and in solid condition. |
| Another
safari vehicle repaired. Another half dozen sit in the
open-air garage under the toil of Thomson’s skilled
team of mechanics. Lovukenya wipes the sweat from her
brow and takes a swig from a bottle of water before moving
on to another job. |
“I
love this work,” Lovukenya exclaims. “Since I
was a little girl, I always enjoyed problem solving and getting
my hands dirty.”
As a Maasai
woman and mother of two, Lovukenya leads a life that is very
different from those of her relatives and ancestors. She excels
in a field dominated by men, and her story serves as an inspiration
to thousands of young Tanzanian women struggling to do the
same.
“When
I was growing up, it was rare for Maasai girls to even go
to school,” she says. “But now more and more girls
are being educated. I believe in the workforce things can
change, too.”
Becoming
a mechanic
By
the time she turned 17, Hellen Lovukenya had already overcome
extraordinary obstacles in pursuing her education. She was
fortunate that her father, a Maasai from northern Tanzania,
completely supported her desire to attend school despite opposition
from his extended family. Highly educated himself, he worked
as an engineer for the national electric company. However,
the nature of his job kept the family on the move as he was
regularly transferred from one end of the country to the other.
“I can’t
even count how many schools I attended,” Lovukenya says,
noting that she has lived in more than seven regions. “Even
then, I had an interest in fixing cars. I used to watch my
dad fixing things all the time at home. But I still knew my
parents would not be supportive of my dream to become a mechanic.”
Later, while attending
Arusha Secondary School, Lovukenya began to sneak away when
she did not have classes, as she had convinced the owner of
a nearby garage to teach her the basics of auto repair in
exchange for doing odd jobs. Surprised at how fast the young
student picked up the basics, the owner told Lovukenya she
could easily get work as a mechanic if she pursued vocational
studies.
Once she graduated
from school and shared her dream with her parents, however,
Lovukenya felt like she had crashed head first into a brick
wall. “No way!” summed up their response. Since
their daughter had passed her exams and qualified to attend
teachers’ college, Lovukenya’s parents said she
was destined to become a teacher, which they believed to be
more suitable for a woman.
“I am very
stubborn and hard-headed,” Lovukenya says with a smile.
“When my parents would not let me study mechanics, I
told them I was going to join the army and be a soldier. When
they struggled with me over that, I decided to just stay home
and help them to farm and look after the cows.”
Yet again, Lovukenya
remained determined, surreptitiously studying auto-mechanics
via correspondence courses and eventually passing several
exams to obtain certificates and diplomas. Soon enough, she
found work in a local garage.
“My parents
and relatives were still completely against it at first,”
she recalls. “It took a long time for people to get
used to me being a mechanic. Some of my uncles confronted
my father and told him he had failed to guide me properly,
and I was a lost cause. But I begged my father just to give
me freedom and the opportunity.”
From fixing Land Rovers to Strengthening Communities
Joining
Thomson Safaris in 2001, Lovukenya exhibited not only skilled
hands and a quick mind, but also one of the company’s
more vibrant personalities. Those who first meet Hellen might
mistake her for being soft spoken. However, they soon learn
that Lovukenya speaks her mind, and she speaks it well. With
broad shoulders and a piercing gaze, the Maasai mechanic has
the calm, patient demeanor of someone wise before her years.
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She
says that her relatives eventually accepted her career
wholeheartedly, especially after she was able to help
support many of them. “Now even my brothers and
relatives are starting to send their daughters to school.
They have seen that if I can do it, so can any girl,”
she says. “This makes me happy more than anything.” |
Lovukenya
balances her career by looking after her family, including
an 11-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son. In her scarce
personal time, she says she enjoys reading novels, such as
the classic African works of Chinua Achebe and Ngugi wa Thiongo.
Most recently,
Lovukenya expanded her career by assuming additional responsibilities
as Thomson Safaris’ volunteer coordinator. The position
requires her to work with a vast number of Tanzanian communities
and different cultures in setting up volunteer programs for
Thomson travelers. From prestigious universities to groups
of families, she sets up volunteer teaching, construction,
and cultural exchange programs and serves as a liaison between
communities and volunteers.
“The community
work is actually more challenging than repairing vehicles,”
she says. “Automotive mechanics are rather simple once
you learn. But people are much more difficult to understand.
When I started doing this work, though, I truly began to feel
like a dream that I had been dreaming for a long time had
started to come true.”
Inspiring Women to Empower Themselves
It’s
near quitting time at the Thomson Safaris auto garage and
headquarters in Arusha. After thoroughly scrubbing her face,
hands, and arms, Lovukenya changes from her navy blue mechanic’s
jumpsuit to a comfortable pair of jeans. Other staff members
have already begun to board the large bus that takes them
back to town.
“Overall,
women need more self-confidence in Tanzania,” says Lovukenya.
“Too many women have the capability but they lack the
confidence. I would love to tell girls that they have the
capability. They can succeed. You just have to be determined.
It’s the same for the Maasai. The strength is with the
women who will make changes and make sure their children go
to school. They are the future.”
And what about
her own daughter, Jennifer? Will she follow in mama’s
footsteps over some grease-slicked garage floor?
“No.
She wants to be a doctor,” says Lovukenya. “She
can be whatever she wants to be.”
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