Ugandan Village

We visit the The Karamojong tribe near Loitanit in Kaabong District. The Karimojong are an ethnic group of agro-pastoral herders living mainly in the north-east of Uganda close to the South Sudan border. Their language is also known as Karamojong or Karimojong, and is part of the Nilo-Saharan language group.
Due to the arid climate of the region, the Karamojong have always practiced a sort of pastoral transhumance, where for 3-4 months in a year, they move their livestock to the neighboring districts in search of water and pasture for their animals.
The availability of food and water is always a concern and affects the Karamojong's interaction with other ethnic groups.
The dominant feature of Karamojong society is their age system, which is strictly based on generation. As successive generations have an increasing overlap in age, this leads logically to a breakdown of the system, which appears to have occurred after rules were relaxed in the nineteenth century among their close neighbours, the Jie. However, the Karamojong system is flexible enough to contain a build-up of tension between generations over a cycle of 50 years or so. When this can no longer be resolved peacefully, the breakdown in order leads to a switch in power from the ruling generation to their successors and a new status quo.
As both a rite of passage into manhood, as well as a requirement for engagement, a young Karamojong man is required to wrestle the woman he desires to marry. If he is successful in winning the wrestling match against the woman, he is now considered to be a man and is permitted to marry the woman. This ensures that the man will be strong enough to care for and protect his wife. After a successful match, the dowry negotiations are allowed to commence. In an instance where the young man is unable to defeat the woman in the wrestling match, he will not be considered by his people to be a man and will often leave to marry a woman from a different people-group where a test of strength is not required. If a non-Karamojong man desires to marry a Karamojong woman, he is also required to go through this ceremony.
The Karamojong have been involved in various conflicts centered on the practice of cattle raids.
The Karamojong are in constant conflict with their neighbors in Uganda, Sudan and Kenya due to frequent cattle raids. This could be partly due to a traditional belief that the Karamojong own all the cattle by a divine right, but also because cattle are also an important element in the negotiations for a bride and young men use the raids as a rite of passage and way of increasing their herds to gain status. In recent years the nature and the outcome of the raids have become increasingly violent with the acquisition of AK47s by the Karamojong.
The Ugandan government have attempted to broker deals for weapons amnesties, but the number of cattle the Karamojong have wanted per gun has proved too steep for any meaningful agreement to be made.
Google news on Karamojong, it makes for very interesting reading. The latest news item :
he Ugandan government has issued a shoot-to-kill order against Kenyan pastoralists who will cross its border while armed.
The order was issued by the country’s Minister for Karamoja Affairs, Moses Kizige while speaking in Northern Uganda.
Kizige complained that while the Ugandan government had disarmed the Karamajong warriors, the communities living in Kenya and South Sudan were using their guns to carry out raids against the unarmed Ugandans.
He said the only way out was for the Ugandan army to kill any rustlers who cross into Uganda.
“The government didn’t disarm the Karamojong to allow armed pastoralists from neighbouring countries to disturb them. We shall now start killing them to save the lives of our harmless people in Karamoja,” Kizige stated."
Also many Karamojong people are forced to beg for food etc on the streets of Kampala. Very sad. These people were very welcoming.