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ABSTRACT
Over the past two generations, livestock loss and hunger, caused by violent conflict and drought, have driven many transhumant agro-pastoralists living in central Karamoja to resettle in unpopulated areas more suitable for agricultural production. These areas, mostly located in the southern and western parts of the region, were historically used by herders as dry season grazing rangelands, while they presently house permanent settlements populated by now sedentarised ‘marginal farmers’, town-based workers and patriarchal elites. In this article, I advance the concept of ‘de-pastoralisation’ to explain the process of dispossession of the major means of social reproduction, which causes an increase in livelihoods diversification and in social differentiation. Through the concept of de-pastoralisation, this article aims to investigate the historical dissolution of pastoralism and its socio-economic consequences, characterised by exploitative inter and intra household relations of production, leading to processes of general proletarianisation and male elite accumulation that reproduce inequality over time.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Ian Scoones, Ben Jones, Matt Kandel and Padmini Iyer for reading earlier drafts of this article and raising critical points. I would also like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 The word ‘Karamojong’ refers to the inhabitants of the districts of Karamoja, which includes different sub-ethnic groups, such as: Bokora, Matheniko, Pian, Dodoth, Jie, Pokot, Labwor and other smaller groups.
2 What is meant by ‘commodification’ is: ‘the process through which the elements of production and social reproduction are produced for, and obtained from, market exchange and subjected to its disciplines and compulsions’ (Bernstein Citation2010, 102).
3 Except for the seminal Marxist works of Pierre Bonte and Peter Rigby among others, who have addressed pastoral transitions and class formation at their incipient stage. Unfortunately, in the current debates on pastoral livelihoods diversification their lessons remain marginal or unheard.
4 I have employed the wealth ranking method to define the terms ‘wealth’ and ‘poverty’ and to then stratify all of the households of Lojom into different wealth groups (Grandin Citation1988). I carried this out in coordination with the census survey and identified the inhabitants in what I categorized as the four wealth groups of: better off, middle, poor and very poor. The combination of the census survey and the wealth ranking enabled my analysis to triangulate between the census data and the local understanding of household ranking in terms of wealth and welfare, thus generating further insights into social differentiation (Scoones Citation1995b).
5 A different ethnic group from Teso region bordering southwest of Karamoja.
6 These ethnographic accounts illustrate how the Karamojong survived mainly through the harnessing of their herds, as well as through complementary activities, such as sorghum cultivation, harvesting of wild fruits and hunting of wild animals (Dyson-Hudson Citation1966).
7 The periodization begins with the term ‘pastoral period’ as opposed to ‘agro-pastoral period’ because transhumant pastoralism was the dominant mode of production and it is the argument of this article that farming has always been a marginal production (or opportunistic) activity for the majority of the population.
8 This was mainly caused by an inefficient use of livestock due to violence and conflict, coupled with animal diseases and the collapse of major water sources (Dodge and Wiebe Citation1985).
9 Available data on both human and cattle population in Karamoja is oftentimes unreliable and data for population density is not available. However, despite the overall scarce and poor quality of available data, the argument of a decreased per capita cattle holdings over time can hardly be contested.
10 Interview with Karamojong formally educated elders from Bokora and Matheniko sections.
11 Interview with Karamojong formally educated elders from Bokora and Matheniko sections.
12 Interview with Karamojong formally educated elders from Bokora and Matheniko sections.
13 Case study interview with the chairman Local Council 3 of Iriiri sub-county and head of Lojom village.
14 Both Teso and Lango (a region bordering to the west) are agrarian-dominant though still in possession of cattle herds.
15 Interview with Comboni missionary in Mathany.
16 On average between 1980 and 2002 the ratio increased from 1 cattle per person to 2 cattle per person.
17 This is an insurgent group that was formed in northern Uganda under the leadership of Joseph Kony.
18 Interview with Karamojong shepherds and livestock owners in Nakicumet kraal.
19 The Pian section also experienced a similar fate (Knighton Citation2010).
20 Case study interview with the chairman Local Council 3 of Iriiri sub-county and head of Lojom village.
21 Cattle and smallstock closely follow the same patterns of distribution, and the two assets correlate highly with each other.
22 In each image refers to the location where the livestock are kept during a certain period of the year.
23 For the description of the climate in Karamoja between 2006 and 2015 I triangulated several sources in my PhD dissertation, ranging from scholarly works, NGOs and UN agencies reports, as well as I relied on data I collected during my time living in Karamoja (2010-2014).
24 This was a year of particular low production due to a long dry spell between May and July that impeded crop germination in many places, followed by heavy rainfall and water logging (local floods) which negatively affected overall crop production. However, secondary data on agricultural production both for 2014 and 2015 for Napak district and Iriiri sub-county show a yearly production of sorghum and maize per household averaging 187 kg and 195 kg, respectively (Welthungerhilfe Citation2015; WFP Citation2015).
25 This figure represents the total production in terms of monetary income at the market prices of 2014. The apparent disproportion of relatively high sources of income from unskilled wage labour – frequently employed in agriculture – and low agriculture sales is explained by the fact that not all the production was sold when I did the survey and that many households in Lojom find unskilled labour opportunities also outside the village (e.g. in Iriiri town).
26 This amount is way below the international poverty line of USD 1,90 (about UGX 6,845 in 2017) per person per day.
27 Leja-leja or Elejilej is a term that means unskilled daily labour. The term is mainly used to describe daily agricultural work but also carrying water, off loading trucks, construction work, government and development partners daily tasks, etc.
28 A specific research focusing on financial remittances – both within the region (e.g. rural/urban) and across the country – would be useful to better understand the economic impact of the current flow of remittances.
29 ‘Lineage mode of production’ is every individual's aim of ‘accumulating social dependants rather than goods’ (Hodgson Citation1999, 43).
30 Interview with wives of better off and middle wealth groups in Lojom.
31 This is a village on the outskirts of Iriiri centre.
32 A major road on the outskirts of Iriiri centre.
33 Interview with Keem local businessman and ex-raider in Iriiri.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Matteo Caravani
Matteo Caravani is a political economist lecturing the agrarian question in modern history at the Makerere Institute for Social Research (MISR) in Uganda. Email: [email protected].