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The Maasai tribe is in crisis. Its nomadic pastoral traditions and ritualistic blood-drinking are in conflict with the modern world. The community's attitudes to women are equally out of step. Education is almost exclusively reserved for boys and female circumcision is standard practice.

Sitatien Kaelo was the smartest girl in the tribe. Yet when she reached puberty, her father tried to stop her education and insisted Sitatien and her sister be circumcised.

Sitatien's community continued to pay for her education into high school. Yet this soon came to an end because, as Sitatien points out, 13 year-old girls are considered grown women where she comes from.

But with the help of a Maasai tribal elder and a university scholarship in the US, Sitatien's life becomes anything but traditional.

The farewell song composed by female friends and family is a haunting tribute to the responsibilities resting on this youngster's shoulder.

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About Al Jazeera - Witness

Rageh Omaar presents Witness, a half-hour daily documentary series which features short, specially commissioned or acquired films gathered from independent filmmakers.
 
Each documentary reveals the unknown lives of ordinary people, following their lives, telling their stories and portraying the challenges that confront them. Our witnesses are people in a situation or those who have observed them first hand.
 
The films cover conflict, belief, the past and the future and as well as bringing new stories to light they showcase the talents of a new breed of multi-skilled, frontline journalist. In the studio, Rageh will further explore the issues raised in the films, with expert guests on the subject matter and the filmmakers themselves.