FROM August 30 to September 3, this
year, the people of Karamoja will converge in the scenic Abim district for a cultural
festival organized by the Karamoja Cultural Association (KCA). This is an
annual event held rotationally within the nine Karamojong districts of:
Karenga, Kaabong, Kotido, Abim, Napak, Moroto, Amudat, Nakapiripirit and
Nabilatuk. It was Amudat district that hosted the last chapter in
2019 before a sequential disruption by COVID-19 from 2020 to 2021 when the
disease took control of the World.
This unique carnival attracts different
Karamojong clusters beyond frontiers. Comrades from: North Western Kenya
(Turkana, Pokot); South Western Ethiopia (Daasanach, Nyangatom); South-Eastern
South Sudan (Toposa, Didinga) and North Eastern Uganda (Dodoth, Iik, Jie,
Matheniko, Thur, Tepeth, Bokora, Pian, Pokot) fully participate. Other close
associates of Karamoja like Iteso and Langi are also part of this Tobong
Lore (come back home) event.
Attracting some 10, 000 people, the
occasion is usually jam-packed with several activities that make it possible
for these relatives to intermingle, appreciate and retell of their social
cultural heritage and the need for continued coexistence amidst endless
challenges of today.
Different traditional activities from
the various clusters (Ateker) within the four Countries are performed;
exhibitions; foods, clothes, games, stories, songs, poems, ritual items, peace
negotiations characterize the Karamoja cultural week.
The theme for this year is, “Security
in Karamoja; The Role of Culture and Traditional Mechanisms in Steering a
Peaceful Karamoja”. This theme was deliberately chosen to open doors for
discussing strategies for attaining peace in Karamoja by the Ateker. It
further hints on the taskforce to be entrusted with sustainable peace efforts
in the region.
Hitherto, the key decision makers in the
Karamojong community are the traditional leaders, -the elders. They commission
every activity whether good or bad. The youth (karacuna) cannot initiate or
execute any risky activity such as cattle raids (ajore) without the consent and
proper guidance of elders. The elders equally call the Karacuna to
order when they see them go amiss.
The cultural event this year thus offers
fertile ground for peace brokers to fortify efforts aimed at tapping the
Karamojong elders off the conflict related knobs as the first and most critical
step towards bringing peace, tranquility and development back to the
region.
The Karamojong have been killing each
other and clashed with neighbors over livestock for over four decades now, -
something that has obstructed their social economic transformation. This trend
could change with constant activities that bring the Ateker together.
Such activities can be integrated with a streamlined uniform resource
distribution mechanism and steadied border security that abates unnecessary
proliferation of arms.
Previous peace initiatives supported by
the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and other development
partners quelled the fire exchange for some time, but the gains couldn’t be
sustained due to survival pressures exacerbated by COVID-19 outbreak, the
invasion of desert locusts and most recently the army worms that swept off most
planted crops.
This year’s event in Abim is expected to
trigger a big discussion around working together with different stakeholders
for sustainable peace and development in the region. KCA’s idea of bringing the
Karamojong clusters together should be commended because it aims at rebuilding
and strengthening unity, peace and emboldening a patriotic Karamojong society
through cultural activities. This is the best way to start work that
will sustainably placate this community.
Largely portrayed as the most regressive
group across countries of their existence, the Karamojong have distinctive
attributes to note. First is resilience; they live in a setting
deprived of adequate rainfall, making it tough generally for; man, livestock
and vegetation to thrive. To this extent, these pastoralists see no option but
to scramble for the limited natural resources; water, pasture and so they have
remained nomadic and chaotic.
Secondly, Karamoja region is plagued
with inexorable armed violence, diseases, hunger, infrastructural gaps and the
lowest literacy level ranking. The latest report by Uganda Bureau of
Statistics(UBOS) rates Karamoja as the poorest with 85 percent of the 1.2
million people experiencing multidimensional poverty. These difficult conditions somehow force the Karimojong to make
desperate, risky survival decisions such as cattle rustling and trade in arms.
The forthcoming cultural festival offers
the best opportunity for peace actors, both Governments and NGOs to slot in
strategic efforts aimed at paralyzing the current wave of insecurity in
Karamoja. Key peace and development actors like the UN, IGAD, Government
ministries and other NGOs need to take advantage of this event by offering
technical and financial resources to facilitate sessions of peace dialogue
involving the Karamojong cluster elders.
This article was also published in the New Vision News paper of Wednesday 31, August 2022
Hook me up; Email: robowiny@gmail.com; Twitter: @RobertOwiny3
