DEFILEMENT, I Was to Submit Self to Police

When friend Lowot John Apalokwang invited me to go visit his family over the weekend a fortnight ago, my thoughts gyrated around a banquet were there would be a river of meat, milk , ngikawo, pumpkins (my most favourite African food)... most of the newly harvested crops of the Tepeth.  I never anticipated any form of entertainment. Even the common edonga dance and the traditional Karimojong songs meant to welcome visitors home did not cross my mind.

The walk to Lomudita village killed 30 minutes- climbing from the plane Tapac Sub County area. My companion, Napore            Lodikiri psychologically reduced this time to some five minutes as he had a lot of verbal work. Napore is definitely an outstanding chronicler of Tepeth history; talking about villages to animals, to birds, to raids, to rocks, to roads, to people and to land...  

Short visits in Africa are naturally at evening hours. Your blogger defied the order due to personal and obvious reasons – safety.  Thus, by 10 am I was already at my pal’s domicile. Apart from the scarcity of safe drinking water and the muscle shredding way home, Lomudita is that gorgeous settlement on top of Mt Moroto.  Everything is an indicator of a typical African village life; from the mowing of a cow to the cry of goats and to that time-telling crowing of a cock.  

Lowot is such a blissful, calculative and wonderful creature. He deliberately fixed my visit on a village boogie day and the dance is commonly called Naleyo. Now I know why he chose this specific day, and I can also say that my friend is a man with a very long vision and probably one of the few heavenly men living on Planet earth. As we crossed the last river to our destination, voices of young happy girls could be heard at a close range down the brook. They were evidently -as their tickling laughter could tell; taking bathe, to purify and beautify themselves in preparation for the boogie. For Naleyo. Immediately, the wide clandestine smile on Napore’s face was able to ring me a bell. I think this occasion was planned by Lowot and Napore so it could strike me like a thunderstorm. 

Naleyo is one of those uproarious, yet delicate traditional Karimojong dances. I spent some two hours at the family home of Lowot. It is precious to stay on with the practices of our forefathers. Deep down-villagers are up to this and there is everything good about it.  There was pure honey ready for licking, and there was a honey-brew ready for drinking. Although am a teetotaller ‘in most cases’, I started this Pilsner-like brew with a mere sip, then a mouthful, a swallow and a gallop until I was -as my colleagues wanted –ready for Naleyo! Good thing, I always keep my promise – never to hit the sky due to alcohols...

The dance started at about 2:00PM just behind the Manyatta. It had started earlier; we joined in some third round of it. The field was already packed by the time I entered with my Canon. How they do it: young women and girls go to the centre, the man – commander of the event moves all round to ensure things are done rightly and...Then ladies move round to pick on the men of their choices. When picked, the man joins the dance by openly handling/squeezing the breasts of the woman that chose him. Songs like for blue movies are sung in the chorus as the Naleyo dance is on.

I did not know that there was something ready for me. Some living thing, an infantile item. Lowot and Napore are terrible criminals! They had told the toddler to ensure she is well scrubbed, well clad on a new vest that the duo had contributed and procured. She was then misled that as the dance starts she should come pick on LOwiny. More words of serious male-wisdom were inserted into the poor girls head about poor me.  

Well; little Iriama Nakoru is not really poorly gifted by God. She has that attractive face; she is well endowed with a sweet seating facility, she has an exotic complexion and her smiles are charmingly romantic. I also recognised beauty due to her delicate breasts and shapely legs, but I could not fall down for all these because she is juvenile, - very young, physically innocent and am faithfully engaged to another angle! The imagination I drew on realising the plan of my boys was how I would be pushed into police cells. Honestly, I think I would submit myself to police for defilement.

Otherwise Naleyo dance is such an event for the local community in Karamoja.  According to Lomuarengan, the dance commander in chief; Naleyo signifies good harvest season and the closer of the year. As a socialisation event, the dance is also exploited by young men and girls to identify suitors. Reader, I didn’t do it because am a responsible Ugandan citizen!