Communal Hunting Among the Acholi of Northern Uganda

Once th wild game is declared dead, it gets immediately dismembered and the body parts apportioned this way:

The children who shouted their voices out are given pieces of the intestines and other inner organs like the rumens. Each child walks home gleefully with a piece of meat from the hunt. A big sense of reward hits the air as they approach home to their expectant family members.

• The net that caught the animal is the killer net. The owner walks away with  two thighs and the entire pelvis. The head of the animal will be an added bonus. Ululations from the women meet him as he approaches the home. He walks like a hero, carrying two fleshy thighs of a bush-buck on his shoulders.
• The person who spears the animal first when it landed into the net would be given the entire chest with one fore leg.
• The person who actually dislodged the animal from its hiding bushes gets the lower back of the animal
• The second person to spear the animal after it has got into the net gets one  foreleg.
• The person who does the skinning gets some bits and pieces of meat for his services including the skin.

 After a successful hunt, every member of the village goes home happy because even if only a few seem to be carrying meat, the entire hunting team live in the hope of taking home a kill next time another hunt is arranged. Besides, the successful hunters usually would invite all their friends to a feast the following morning. Life in such an egalitarian society was always lived with a win-win attitude and joy was always written in the faces of most men and women! Interestingly, they were usually very poor folks, but very happy about staying alive.