Tracing the roots of famine and ecological disequilibrium in Karamoja

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OPINION

By Jamilu Muzinga

Karamoja in Uganda's northeast corner has always been regarded as a backward and troublesome area. The implication always is that it suffers from an inhospitable environment and its people follow a primitive way of life.

Karamoja is a dryland sub-region, having suffered historical injustices, it now faces many difficulties, including civil and administrative challenges. Karamoja has been the focus of numerous government programs and interventions by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the subject of much academic and policy research.

Karamoja suffers from chronic poverty and performs poorly on development indicators compared to other parts of Uganda. Its infrastructure is underdeveloped, and the sub-region is troubled by climate variability and climate change. Drought and shifts in weather result in low agricultural productivity and declining rural production systems. Moreover, Karamoja faces increasing environmental degradation, further threatening crop and livestock production.

Protracted inter- and intra-clan conflicts over cattle and access to pasture and resources, cross-border incursions by groups from neighboring Kenya and Southern Sudan, and a high level of small arms proliferation and violence have all negatively affected the region’s socio-economic development.

The situation in Karamoja has been further complicated by ongoing debates about the economic viability (and desirability) of pastoralism as a livelihood option, tensions between traditional and state security and justice processes, and sometimes heavy-handed approaches to disarmament, provoking resentment amongst communities towards the army and government more generally.

Pastoralism is the dominant economic livelihood for the Karamojong, and its viability as both a way of life and a livelihood is dependent upon the availability of natural resources, access to land and environmental factors. Despite specific development programs targeting Karamoja, poverty amongst pastoralists has grown, and cattle raiding has become more violent. The explanations for this trend include the lack of community involvement in ‘top down’ policies and programs, and an undue focus on efforts that seek to reduce the mobility of the Karamojong.

Historical evidence reveals, to the contrary, that before the colonial presence, the Karamojong operated a viable system of land utilization that left the sub-region a 'grass savanna', where today it is a dry-deteriorating bushland. The deterioration of the environment came about during and because of colonial rule and the particular forms of exploitation visited on the Karamojong. This included the alienation of grazing land; the conversion of hunting into 'poaching'; and 'de-stocking' of cattle was, to add insult to injury, urged as the solution to the resulting over-grazing.

Karamojong is not the result of their having been 'ignored' by British colonialism, as conventional liberal wisdom would have us believe. Quite the contrary. The roots of the present famine lie in the intense colonial exploitation of the people of Karamoja, an exploitation that systematically destroyed not only the very basis of a pastoral way of life but also hampered the transition to an agricultural mode of existence. It has led them to a dead end.

What had been at the outset of colonial rule predominantly a grass savanna was transformed by the end of that same rule into a short-tree savanna, or worse still, barren bushland. Spanning no more than four decades in their long history, colonial rule was the worst and the most deep-seated social catastrophe ever experienced by the people of Karamoja. What happened?

The writer holds a Master of Science in Animal Science and is a researcher under the Dryland Transform Project