What It Takes to be a Man Among the Karamojong

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Having studied and worked in the North Eastern Districts of Karamoja all my life, I have the enviable insight into the cultural way of life these very interesting species of human beings. When the colonialists first visited Karamoja by about 1910, it was found to be a beautiful land of undulating plains and dotted hills steaming with a rich variety of wild life. The people in particular were even more interesting than the wildlife itself-the men lived completely naked, exposing the nitty-gritty of their natural anatomy for the whole wide world to see. They were such hot tourist attraction that the first Europeans who set foot here got persuaded to call this region a “human zoo”! No wonder, they alienated much of the fertile land in this region for national parks and game reserves.

Today, nearly a century since the first colonialist visited Karamoja, the Karamojong way of life for the majority of the people has only made a pathetically dismal change. Men still walk naked when they choose to, although throwing some sheet of cloth around the loins by men is taking root. Women still remain heavily beaded, but they have also circumed to wearing some apparel around their hips as opposed to dressing up in animal hides.

Cattle still remains the core culture and every angle of manhood seem to hinge on how many cows and guns one has. These two variables, the cow and the gun appear clearly as the key determinants of manhood as the Karamojong see it. No one considers himself as such in Karamoja, unless he owns a gun and many heads of cattle. The gun gives such a powerful determinant of manhood that those men who don’t have guns live literally among children and women and say nothing on social issues.

Once a Karamojong has the cows and the much-needed gun to protect the cows, the next thing he needs is a woman. A real man marries as many women as he can afford because women are often translated into a certain number of cows. One woman could cost 100 head of cows. The more cows you give to your in-laws, the more emphatically you define yourself as a man in Karamoja terms. Men who have many cows can marry as many as 10 wives with all of them living in one large sprawling village called Manyatas