December but not quite Christmas

I can’t believe  it's December 8th already and almost Christmas time, life here seems so far removed from the shopping streets and Christmas parties at home. I do miss home and snow, family and friends, but it is nice to be away from the stress that always seems to follow the lead up to Christmas.

Christmas tree at Nakumatt village in Kampala

Last night I met my ‘to be’ language teacher, Perry. She works for a WASH project for Concern here in Moroto, and her commitment to her work and the development of her region is remarkable. She has promised to help me with some language lessons after work whenever she has time during the week. Our first lesson will be tomorrow, so today I will have to try to find a dictionary so I can be prepared. I know learning the language might seem a bit of a trivial use of my time here as I’m not sure how long I will actually be in the area. However I do think a part of understanding the culture and people here is rooted in being able to communicate in the local language. So hopefully I will be able to learn a bit and you never know it might be a useful skill to carry with me wherever I go in the world.  I have a long term goal of learning Swahili and some Arabic as well, so will see how it goes. I realize after my many years of French it might be a bit ambitious, but my motivation for learning is higher than it has ever been so maybe I will manage to stick with it this time.

So today I have spent most of the day going through various discussions had by KDF members and trying to analyse the most common themes and how it could be possible to highlight these in a way that might prove useful to people who have yet not been able to take part in the forum discussions. A main theme is clearly frustration, people here are angry with the appropriation of funds from the government, as well as misjudged NGO projects that could have the best of intentions, but without the true understanding of the pastoralist culture they risk alienating the people further. There has been a common theme in looking at the failures of Karamoja from the outside, pastoralism has become the scapegoat for why this region has supposedly lagged so far behind in development. Yet in reality pastoralism is the most adapted and sustainable way of life in the region. Those who have cattle know where to go when there is a drought or when there is an excess of rain, yet what has and is being done is limiting this mobility, and by doing so the Karimojong are put in an impossible situation. Numerous reports have concluded that Karamoja as a region cannot sustain its population on a pure agricultural basis, so why is pastoralism being blamed for the issues of the region? And why is there such a strong push to grow the agricultural sector?

There are obvious shortcomings with pastoralism in a ‘developed’ country. From the perspective of the government the pure safety concern of having cross border mobility is enough to argue against it also combined with decades of ‘violent’ cattle raids and resistance to government policies. Karamoja has also been the place of the lowest literacy rates and highest infant mortality rates in the country so it doesn’t take a lot to convince politicians and donors that a big change is necessary for Karamoja to join the rest of the world. Yet how can policies for a region be completely decided without the people of the region involved? This is the issue KDF is working with. The Karimojong want better services in the form of healthcare and education, yet they want to keep their culture intact and live in the most sustainable manner in which they know, through pastoralism.

In Moroto every sign post leads to an organization

Just walking around Moroto is like entering a bit of parallel world. The economy of the town is made up of approximately 80 percent NGO’s. Every compound is some NGO, with a name from Europe or the US. All those organizations that you now see on the streets back home asking for donations for projects for the poor in rural Africa are all here. This is where they are supposed to make their difference, and many do. Yet I am a bit cautious of how towns such as this will be able to implement a sustainable change in the region. It is my hope that KDF and other organizations are successful in getting the voice of the people through to the projects that are now being implemented in Karamoja.

Moroto town - the joy of gateway buses ;o

I have been thinking about what my role in being here is. I want to do more research into pastoralism, through talking to people here and getting a better understanding of how pastoralism can function in the 21^st century. I learned a lot from tonights discussion of the various cross border peace treaties aimed at resource sharing. This was always my main concern in regards to how pastoralism could function in a modern nation-state, but seemingly it works. The Jie and Turkana are doing it, so why cannot the rest of pastoralist societies be able to live together in a peaceful way where resources can be shared? I do think it is possible, and hopefully I will learn more in the weeks to come.

Some good news from my side, I passed my dissertation for my masters, and I am now officially done with university. That had to be celebrated with a couple of drinks tonight!

To leave you now with my co-worker Peter showing me his traditional hat – made out of hair…the traditional hats here are a must see. 

Peter in his pièce de résistance