THE MARGIC AT THE TEPETH CULTURAL DAY



Gender & Culture minister receives knives used for FGM in Tapac

Thursday 25^th was celebrated as a Tepeth cultural day in Karamoja.  The first of its kind for this community. The main objective was to launch a community fight on the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) out of the region. The Function took place in Tapac Sub county, Moroto district. The theme for the gala was “Women, Girls enjoy a life free from FGM...It is a human right”.

Hundreds of people of all kinds attended the occasion. Some of the top dignitaries who witnessed the celebration included Lukia Isinga Nakadama, the state minster for Culture and Gender, - she was the chief guest. Three legislators; Hon. John Baptist Lokii (Matheniko County), Hon. Margaret Iriama (Matheniko woman MP) and Hon. Simon Peter Aleper (MPfor Municipality) were present. Other guests included Mark Aol the LC5 Chairperson for Moroto district, Nahaman Ojwe the RDC and other top people from the UN and the NGO world

Tepeth mutilators who turned up to hand over their weapons

The occasion saw the disarmament of the Tepeth FGM surgeons who handed over their surgical equipments to the minister. “Government will ensure that alternative livelihoods projects are brought to you” said Hon. Nakadama. The minister added that, “the young girls should not allow to get wasted by this bad practice, go to school and you will become future leaders like Hon. Margaret Iriama”.

More than 100 elderly women gave out their weapons to the minister. The weapons included; knives used for trimming women’s bodies, horns of strange wild animals –all used in the conventional process of FGM... Others gave out outfits for their ‘theatres’.

Commenting on the actions and the overall value of the day, Matheniko County MP John Baptist Lokii described the celebration as that of - the feature of society. “We are here today to celebrate an aspect of society; the aspect we are celebrating is about culture –some of which are good but some are very bad and affects not only the body, but the integrity and the humanity”, Lokii observed. The legislator alluded to the Bible in the book of Genesis Chapter 2:26-28 which says that God created man in his own image.

L-R; Moroto RDC, Minster Lukia , MP & LC5 receive knives

“When we begin deforming parts of our body, we are defying God’s creation.” The MP asked the Tepeth to take the day as that time when they apologised to God that what they have been doing was not good and they now stand against it. Lokii also acknowledged that FGM was indeed a borrowed cultural practice of the Pokot and not for Tepeth, urging the elders, women and youth to fight it out of their other existing beautiful tradition.

The day was surely a blessed one as the fertility of the heavens ensured short paragraphs of showers threatening to disorganise the festival yet it did not.  Different drama groups supported by different development partners including community groups ensured incredible visual food and something for the mind. But most important thing to mention is that the Tepeth people looked set to live their future lives without FGM. There were also drinks and bites in plenty and plenty.

Tapac Sub County is located to the extreme East of Matheniko County in Moroto district - Karamoja region. It borders the republic of Kenya to the East –touching Turkana land at Lodwar district and the soils of North Pokot district in Kenya. To the south of the Sub County is Amudat district. Nadunget and Katikekile Sub Counties also neighbour Tapac from the West and North western respectively. Like most people in the Karamoja region, the Tepeth practice animal grazing as their main livelihood activity with subsistence crop growing carried out on a very small scale.

The Sub County is composed of six parishes including Tapac which has six abnormally large villages (each village in this Sub County is the size of a parish in other parts of the country,). Other parishes are Katikekile with six villages, Loyaraboth having 3 villages and Kodonyo with six villages.  Others are Nakwanga of seven villages and Natumkale (not accessible by road) composed of four villages.

Although this cultural day was organised by Sub County authorities, the event involved all Tepeth people from all over the region. Other Tepeth communities came from Katikekile Sub County at the edge of Moroto Municipality. According to informed people, the Tepeth land in Karamoja is approximately 300sq KM.  Reader, attending this function to me was like an extraordinary curtain raiser for the weekend and for Eid for- you brother Mohammed!