Climate Change and Conflict in Uganda: The Cattle Corridor - FESS ...

Figure 7: Karamoja Production Zones
SOURCE: GOVERNMENT OF UGANDA 2010A.
poverty, security, national policy, and
conflict.
The inhabitants of Karamoja, known
collectively and generically as the
Karamojong, are made up of three
main ethnicities—the Dodoso, Jie,
and Karimojong, the latter of which
subdivides into a number of sections,
including the Bokora, Matheniko, and
Pian. Along the border with Kenya to
the east are found the Turkana and
Pokot tribes, while to the north in
Sudan are the Toposa. The so-called
“Karamoja cluster” extends from
these shared borderlands of Uganda,
Kenya, and Sudan to the
southwestern corner of Ethiopia.
These tribes and sections have
common Eastern Nilotic origins,
politico-religious rituals, and social
organization by age-class (Knighton
2003, 2005).
Most Karamojong practice
agropastoralism across the semi-arid
and arid plains of this region, although
in Karamoja there is sufficient
ecological variation to constitute
three distinct production zones:
agricultural; agro-pastoral; and
pastoral (see Figure 7). The
agricultural zone, which mostly runs
along the western border of
Karamoja, also is referred to as the
“green belt” of Karamoja. In the
green belt, where rainfall on average
is nearly double that of the pastoral
areas, a wide variety of crops can be
grown, including corn, sorghum,
beans, millet, cow peas, ground nuts,
and a number of tropical fruits.
However, the majority of
Karamojong live in the agropastoral
and pastoral areas, and livelihoods
there are based primarily on livestock
rearing.
For hundreds of years, the arid and
drought-prone nature of much of
Karamoja has made food security and
group survival often difficult and
precarious. Famine is not a new
phenomenon. Cattle are highly
valued, not only as a means of
providing sustenance but also as
bridewealth, social status, and
ceremonial centerpiece. They are
“the medium of all social values, the
means of livelihood, and the stock of
wealth” (Knighton 2005). In this mix
of scarcity, environmental shocks, and
highly valued livestock, the
Karamojong have developed
longstanding patterns of cattle raiding
among the various tribes and
sections. These, too, are not only
acts of aggression to obtain more
cattle or replenish diminished herds,
but also demonstrations of prowess
and heroism on the part of the
community’s young initiates or
karachuna, commonly referred to as
the Karamojong “warriors.”
Karamojong settlement patterns
reflect the need for protection
against cattle raiding by rival groups
in the form of manyattas (a village or
collection of households) and kraals
(a mobile camp of mostly men for
herding cattle, sheep, goats, and
donkeys). Both of these are guarded
and sturdily constructed with thorn
bushes and other local materials to
defend against enemies.
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