The Karamojong of Uganda | Pastoralists of the Northeast

The Karamojong of uganda are a Nilotic ethnic group found in the southern region of north-eastern Uganda. They speak an eastern Nilotic- language which is part of the Nilo-Saharan group.
The Karamojong are a largest cluster of a culturally and historically related people who include the Jie, Teso, Labwor, Dodoth of Uganda and the Turkana of Kenya.
History
The Karamojong live in the southern part of the north east of Uganda who occupy a tenth of the country with half of the population under 18 years. According to history, the Karamojong are said to have migrated from the present day Ethiopia around 1600 A.D and split into two groups. One group settled in the present day Kenya forming the Kalenjin and Masai groups. The other group who called themselves Ateker, migrated westwards. They split into several groups which included Turkana in Kenya, the Itesot, Dodoth, Jie, Karamojong and Kuman in present day Uganda. Other groups, Jive and Toposa settled in present day South Sudan and all together, they are known as the ‘Karamojong or ‘Teso’ group.
History has it that the Karamojong were originally called the Jie. The name Karamojong was derived from the phrase ‘’ekar ngimojong’’ which means old men can walk no further. The Karamojong or Teso people are said to have migrated from Abyssinia as a single group. When they reached round the modern Kenyan-Ethiopian border, they’re said to possess divided into several groups including people who became the Turkana, Toposa and therefore the Dodoth. The Dodoth settled in Aule, present day Karamoja, Toposa continued to present day southern Sudan while the Turkana settled in Kenya. The Jie split from the Turkana moving up the escarpment to Kotido district in Uganda. The other group consisting of seven groups settled in Karamoja district eventually merging to become the three existing clans: Matheniko in the east around Mount Moroto, the Pian in the south and the Bokora in the west. Another group, who were believed to have come up with the phrase, ‘old men can walk no further’ formed and headed west to form the Iteso, Kumam and the Langi
Language
The Karamojong people ae related to the Turkana and speak the same language with prefixes ŋi- and ŋa- respectively. The lack of pre-fix shows he land where they settled. All these prefixes stem from the Ateker languages that are mutually intelligible.
The Langi are also genetically and ethnically related to the ŋiKarimojong as evidenced by the similar names even though they adopted a dialect of the Luo language.

Culture
The main activity of the Karamojong is cattle keeping which is of cultural and social importance to them. Agriculture is a secondary activity undertaken in areas that favor the activity.
Due to the climate of the region which is arid, the Karamojong have always practiced pastoral transhumance where they move with their cattle in search of water and pasture for the animals from time to time in the neighboring districts.
The search for pasture and water by the Karamojong in the neighboring districts has affected their social interaction with other ethnic groups.
The availability of food and water is usually a priority and affects the Karamojong’s interaction with other ethnic groups.
Social organization
The dominant feature of Karamojong society is their age system, which is strictly supported generation.
After rules were relaxed in among their close neighbors, the Jie in the nineteenth century, successive generations have had an increasing overlap in age. The Karamojong however have a system that is flexible enough to contain chaos between generations. If and when this can no longer be solved peacefully, the breakdown in order leads to a switch in power from the ruling generation to the new successors.
The Karamojong have been in constant conflict for cattle raids with their neighbors in Uganda, Sudan and Kenya. This could be partly due to a traditional belief that the Karamojong own all the cattle by a divine right and also because cattle are an important element in the negotiations for a bride and young men. The Karamojong youths 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 guns by the Karamojong.
As a requirement for engagement, a Karamojong man is required to wrestle the lady he desires to marry. If he successfully wins the wrestling match against the woman, he is considered a man and granted permission to marry the woman. This ensures that the person are going to be strong enough to worry for and protect his wife.
After a successful match, the dowry negotiations then commence. In a situation where the young man loses to the woman in the wrestling match, he is not considered by his people to be a man and will often leave to marry a woman from a different ethnic-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 like the rest if the community.
Each person in the Karamojong community has a specific task to perform. boys take cattle inn search for water and pasture while girls remain in the villages to look after their homesteads and their granaries, prepare meals and when possible carry out some cultivation
Cattle are one of the main elements that make up the Karamojong culture. The cattle is very much valued for social and economic purposes. cattle provide milk, beef and milk for consumption while the fat is used for cosmetic purposes.

The herds are divided in order that some cows are kept around permanent homesteads for milking while most are sent off to distant pastures, where young men tend to them and live off their milk, sometimes supplementing a meagre and monotonous diet with blood obtained by bleeding the cattle which has led to constant conflict with their neighbors in Uganda, Sudan and Kenya.
Conflicts
Due to their search for greener pastures and water for their cattle, the Karamojong have been involved in many conflicts. The conflicts are also as a result of cattle raids carried out by the Karamojong due to the high statue placed on cattle. They have a strong belief that they have divine rights to own cattle. The number of these raid has increased over the years after the acquisition of guns by the Karamojong.
Religion
The Karamojong are very rigid people who have strong traditional beliefs. They have shunned most religions such as Christianity and Islam. They believe in Akuj, the god of faith.
However due to the recent developing world, a few of them have learnt to embrace Christianity as well as Islam and they are a few churches and mosques that can be seen in the community.
Climate
Karamoja region has two rainy seasons and an extremely dry season dry season from October to April and December to January characterized by strong winds. The rainy season peaks from May to July.
The uncertainty in climate has led to transhumant pastoralism among the Karamojong where they move from place to place in search of water and greener pasture for their cattle.
The Karamojong Manyattas
The manyattas are Karamojong villages located near Kidepo valley National Park. The people live in peace with nature though the weather is not so favorable. They dress half naked and are decorated with tribal markings.
The community has togetherness, a sense of welcoming and has been like this for centuries. They have traditional huts with a standard communal homestead and during the wet season these people stay in largely permanent manyattas but in the dry season men mostly stay in kraals as they have to migrate for water and pasture.
They love story telling on fire places led by elders with tales of the past raids while sipping their traditional beer in a pot. They also love traditional dancing in the evenings and also give names to visitors
Their traditional dance is known as Endaga which is performed mostly during courtship, weddings and when a visitor visits. The girls always lead the dance with multiple beads on their heads, neck, wrists, and arms while men follow with energetic dance movements

Pian Upe wildlife game reserve
The Pian Upe Wildlife Reserve is a conservation area in the Karamoja sub region in northeastern Uganda. It is the second largest conservation protected area in Uganda. Pian Upe is home to enormous rock pythons and smaller but venomous puff adders. Harmless water snakes are also found there.
The largest lizards in Pian Upe are the savannah monitors. Others within the reserve include the common agama also as skinks, chameleons and geckos
Pian Upe is a very beautiful game reserve but less visited and is bordering Matheniko game reserve and the Bakora wildlife reserve in different directions. This reserve is part of Mount Elgon conservation area close to Mbale town in eastern Uganda.
The reserve experiences semi-arid conditions and the plants and animals survive for a long time without water during certain periods of the year
Pian Upe is a home to two pastoralist tribes for which it is named, the Pian being part of a sub group of the Karamoja, and the Upe being a Kalenji speaking people more widely known as the Pakot within Kenya. These two tribes have a history of armed conflict mostly associated with cattle rustling. At times the Pian and the Upe team up to fight neighboring tribes in Kenya or Uganda or at times they have directed their violence towards each other.