Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-tdptf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-15T08:34:59.459Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Karamoja District of Uganda

A Pastoral People under Colonial Rule

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

J. P. Barber
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Uganda is a green and fertile country; a land of dense forests, banana gardens, and elephant grass; but there is, in the north-east corner, bordering Kenya and the Sudan, a district which for many months of the year is brown and dry. This is Karamoja. Karamoja forms a barrier between the abundance of Uganda and the sparseness of the desert and semidesert, which sweep from the Horn of Africa, across the north of Kenya, to the escarpment of the Rift Valley, which is the eastern boundary of Karamoja itself. The District, which is one and a half times the size of Wales but with a population of only 172,000, consists of wide, thorn scrub covered plains broken by large volcanic mountain masses. Across the plains the tribes of Karamoja, the Dodoth, the Jie, the Karamojong, and the Suk, herd their cattle. Cattle are the basis of their life and their culture. It is for their cattle that during the dry season they wander over the great plains in search of water and grass. It is for their cattle, to defend their pasture, and to increase the herds, that the tribes fight and steal from each other. Like many of Africa's cattle tribes they have not taken to westernization. They present for Uganda the problem, common to many African states, of a proud pastoral people who do not fit into the new Africa of nationalism, constitutional changes and subtle voting arrangements.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 1962 , pp. 111 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1962

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 In this paper the tribes will be grouped together and called ‘The Karamojong’.Google Scholar

2 Information supplied by Lopuko in Conversation.Google Scholar

3 Turpin—Provincial Commissioner, Eastern Province 28 June 1918.Google Scholar

4 Lieutenant (later Major-General) Hawkins—private correspondence (unpublished).Google Scholar

5 Roberts, Childlaw—Provincial Commissioner, Eastern Province—15 June 1920.Google Scholar

6 Chief Secretary—Warner, Ashton, 25 April 1921.Google Scholar

7 Undated report by Turpin; and Roberts, Childlaw—Chief Secretary, 15 Nov. 1920.Google Scholar

8 Warner, Ashton—P.C., 18 June 1921.Google Scholar

9 Karamoja Annual Report 1921—Uganda Government Records.Google Scholar

10 Lamb to P.C., Eastern Province—30 March 1923.Google Scholar

11 Report on Karamoja chiefs 1920.Google Scholar

12 Lamb to District Commissioner—18 Dec. 1921.Google Scholar

13 Meeting.Google Scholar

14 Report by Lamb—Provincial Commissioner, E.P. 13 Nov. 1923. The incidents of the murder are taken from this report.Google Scholar

15 Information gained in conversation with Achuka.Google Scholar

16 Webber—P.C. Feb. 1924.Google Scholar

17 Notes on meeting of 21 Dec. 1923. Uganda Government Records.Google Scholar

18 Notes on meeting of 21 Dec. 1923.Google Scholar

19 Tufnell—D.C., Karamoja. 3 Jan. 1924.Google Scholar

20 Minute 6126 dated 4.12.23. Original underlined.Google Scholar

21 Dyson Hudson Report for Uganda Government on Karamoja 1958.Google Scholar

22 Webber—P.C. 24 March 1924.Google Scholar

23 Guy Eden—D.C., Karamoja. 31 March 1924.Google Scholar

24 Preston—P.C., E.P. 12 June 1924.Google Scholar

25 Minute 6126 dated 4.12.23.Google Scholar

26 Karamoja Annual Report, 1929.Google Scholar

27 P.C.—D.C., Karamoja. 30 Sept. 1939.Google Scholar

28 Until shortly before the 1939 war K.A.R. Units maintained posts to control the passes from Turkana.Google Scholar

29 Preston to Guy Eden, June 1924.Google Scholar

30 Karamoja Annual Report, 1928.Google Scholar

31 Karanioja Annual Report, 1925.Google Scholar