Education of the Daughter of the Maa
by David Katitia
Bow your heads and think oh people of Maa,
Think of the goodness of the daughter of Maa.
For by her are you existent.
Our Fathers say a daughter is good because we marry her off and get a crate of beer.
Our mothers say a daughter is good, the bridegroom will surely buy us presents.
Our brothers happily say we will get cows from our in-laws.
And I, the daughter of the Maa queries
Am I a cow to be sold?
Mother, father, give me education
Because a husband without education is nothing.
Father, look at other communities
They have educated their daughters and reap good fruit.
How different is the daughter of Maa?
Who is ordered “sit like a woman,” behave like an old wife though you are still young?
Father called me the other day and said,
You are grown up and I’ll marry you off to Pakiteng.
The old man doesn’t own a single cow.
You treat me like a stick which is cut from the wild and given off as a present.
I say I DON’T want a husband.
Father sits by the gate of the cattle enclosure and says “I will take my beloved sons to school
And my beloved daughters will look after cattle.
I suffer the cruel sun and wither like an acacia bark.
O father let the daughter of Maa go to school.
Educating a girl is educating a nation,
Misery will surely be a thing of the past
And goodness will spread like a good aroma.
Lets surely then educate the daughter of Maa.