If looks are anything to go by, one would be forgiven for omitting a visit to Karamoja museum off their itinerary. There is nothing fancy about this facility which sits at the foot of Mountain Moroto, Singila village in Katikikile Sub County.

Considering its construction was spearheaded by the French Embassy, a party well known for being stylish and impressive, you would expect it to be an architectural Marvel. Instead, it looks like a typical two bedroomed rental house that has been abandoned. What’s more, it has been a really long time since its walls and roof last received a fresh coat of paint. The little that is there is peeling off, giving the building a not very inviting look. However, its inside is the exact opposite. Under its roof are precious archeological findings that no amount of money can buy. These mostly comprise of fossils exhibits that are over 3million years old. Most of these are dag from the mountains in the Karamoja region where they were buried by hot magma as a result of volcanic eruptions. Among the most sought after exhibits here is the teeth of the oldest known fossil monkey known in the world, 19-20million years back. Victoria pithecus macinneni is what it is called, it was roughly the size of a ververt monkey.

Simply put, a guided tour inside this wonderland gives a deep insight into what the world was like before man was born. Its prime purpose is to help expose and preserve the silent Karimojong Culture and heritage. That is why I am more than happy to recommend it.

Entrance fee to it is UGX 10,000. It is open from 8am to 5pm each working day. For details, you can reach its conservator on 0783330644 (Peter Apaja).

The Acholi people are a Luo-Nilotic tribe in northern Uganda. They occupy the current Acholi sub-region according to the geographic division of Uganda.

The sub-region comprises the districts of Agago, Amuru, Gulu, Kitgum, Lamwo, Nwoya, and Pader. Although other Acholis are found in Magwe County in South Sudan, they are often excluded from the political meaning of the term “Acholi land”. In fact, the Acholi from South Sudan refers to themselves as ‘Acoli’ not ‘Acholi’. The Acholi speak a western Nilotic language, classified as Luoor Lwo.

Origin

The Acholi were originally inhabitants of the Bahr-el-Ghazal Region in South Sudan before they migrated and settled in northern and eastern Uganda and others in western Kenya. Legends also assert that the Acholi are a product of intermarriages between the Luo and the Madi of West Nile.

Although researchers say the word ‘Acholi’ is a term that became adopted for convenience over the years, there are many theories that show how the famous name came into existence.One of the theories states that prior to colonialism, the Acholi referred to themselves as ‘An-loco-li’, which means “I am a human being”, or “black”.

An-loco-li did not have any ethnic definition of geographical boundaries initially. Another theory says during the second half of the 19th Century, Arabic-speaking traders from the north referred to Acholi people as ‘school, a term which was later transformed into ‘Acholi’.

Forming the chiefdom

In the late 17th Century, a new socio-political order developed among the Luo who had settled in northern Uganda, mainly characterized by the formation of chiefdoms headed by chiefs known as Rwodi or Rwoti in Luo. By the mid-19th Century, about 60 small chiefdoms existed in eastern Acholi land all ruled by Rwodis or chiefs.

Although many chiefs were ruling smaller clans within the Acholi sub-region, it was not until the British colonial era when Rwot Awich of the Payira clan became the Acholi Paramount Chief in the 1900s.Payira clan is one of the biggest clans in the Acholi sub-region.

It is the clan from which the paramount chief is chosen from the patrilineal family line. The Rwot/chief was a central figure and he had executive, judicial and legislative powers. In addition, he was the link between the living and the dead. It was his duty to offer sacrifices to ancestors on behalf of his subjects. The chiefdom currently has 57 sub-clans which are all headed by Rwodis.

Choosing the chiefs

Traditionally, chiefs were chosen from one clan, and each chiefdom had several villages made up of different patrilineal clans.Since 1900, more than 20 Paramount Chiefs have ruled the Acholi Chiefdom most notably RwotAwich (deceased), Rwot Ali Aliker (deceased), Rwot Yona Odida(deceased) and Rwot Justine Acana I (deceased),

among others. The current Acholi Paramount Chief is Rwot David Onen Acana II who ascended the throne after the death of his father Rwot AcanaI in2005. He is the 25thparamount chief and currently, he over sees 54 smaller chiefdoms locally known as ‘ker’. Members of the royal lineage ‘kaka pa rwot’ are known as the ‘people of the court’ or ‘jokal’ or lobito or the‘people of power’.

Batandrateating

The Acholi are unique in certain practices, foods and rituals. Notable among them is bat and rat eating. This is done most especially among the Lamogi people in Amuru District. Strange as it may seem, the Lamogi have enjoyed the delicacies since time immemorial.

They trap the bats from caves at the famous Guru-Guru hills using thorny tree branches.Once trapped, the bats are cooked in various forms to suit one’s taste. Some are skewed and roasted and cooked in a mixture of groundnut paste and served with Kwon Kal (millet bread) or boiled cassava. Other people trap the bats for sale. A bat in a market in Lamogiis sold at Shs1,000. As for the rats, they are hunted in the bushes near homestead sand are also prepared in various ways.

Traditional rituals
Matooput is one of the important rituals in the chiefdom. It is performed in case somebody has been murdered. The ceremony involves two clans (the deceased’s and the murderers) bringing together the perpetrator and the victim in a quest for restoring social harmony. Matooput begins by separating the affected clans, mediation to establish the ‘truth’, and payment of compensation according to by-laws.The final ritual, ‘drinking the bitter root’ is a day-long ceremony involving symbolic acts all designed to reunite the warring clans.

Marriage
The Acholi attach so much significance to the marriage institution (nyom) that failure to marry is considered a curse (or an abnormality). Childlessness is counted as one of the most serious misfortunes to befall a couple, with women typically taking all the blame. In such cases, the marriage could be dissolved or the husband allowed to take another wife, because to Acholi, children are the ultimate goal of any marriage. In fact, according to legends, an Acholi couple could not set up a home until their first child was born.

Traditional dances
The Acholi have several dances including the royal and courtship dances. Bwola dance was only considered a royal dance and would only be performed before the royal family or the chiefs. Laraka-raka dance is for courtship and it is the youth who used to take part in it mostly as a way to identify potential suitors. Other traditional dances include Otole, Dingi Dingi, and Ajere. The Acholi also used to tell African folktales to the children and some of the stories are still being told to date children, they included stories of Apwoyo (hare) and Obibi (the ogre).

Symbolic Animal
The Acholi uniqueness is also significant in some animals they hold dear. Elephants (Lyecor Lyeci in plural) are the most respected and symbolic animals. They are considered wise, brave, and energetic animals. Acholi considers themselves tall, brave, and energetic people. In fact, the Gulu District local government has adopted the elephants as its symbols on all administrative logos as well as a section of other institutions in the sub-region.

Tourism
Acholi chiefdom is also gifted by nature. It has a number of natural and historic sites that have become great tourist destinations. Notable among them are the Lamogi hills, the hills where the Lamogi clan people staged a partial resistance to the British Colonial rule in 1911. They are found in Amora Village, Lamogi Sub-county in Amuru District.

Another tourist site Acholi chiefdom can boast about is Fort Patiko in Gulu District. Located about 32 kilometers north of Gulu Town, the fort is enclosed by a 16 feet wide and 15 feet deep trench dug by slaves on the orders of the Arabs to avoid the escape of the abductees to be traded as slaves.

However, when Sir Samuel Baker was commissioned in 1863 by the Queen of England to fight slavery in Uganda, they camped at Fort Patiko and abolished slave trade in the region.The place still possesses the house built with stones by Sir Samuel Baker sitting on top of the Patiko hills

Every August, many Bagisu or Bamasaba boys are figuratively initiated into manhood. Bagisu inhabit the western and southern halves of Mount Elgon in eastern Uganda. The boys, mostly aged between 12 and 16, undergo a traditional circumcision ritual called Imbalu. This process is done without any anesthetics. Imbalu literary means a big knife.

In Bugisu, the main ceremony in the region is always held at Mutoto, one Kilometer  out of Mbale Town. Mutoto not only brings together Bamasaba from Uganda but also from Kenya. According to local folklore, Mutoto is the place where the first imbalu ceremony officially took place. All the subsequent imbalu opening ceremonies have taken place there ever since. In fact those who have witnessed the ceremonies equate Mutoto to Namugongo or Mecca where thousands of pilgrims throng annually.

It is not clear when exactly imbalu started. But folklore has it that the Bamasaba took it up “for the safety of the boys” especially so after a Mumasaba boy bruised his foreskin during intercourse with a girl.

“So to protect other boys, the Bamasaba adopted circumcision,” says Bob Mushikori, a minister in the Inzuyi Bamasaba (the House of Bamasaba). “It is now part of our culture. It is something that identifies us.”

Another tradition states that imbalu originated from the demand by the Kalenjin when Masaba, the Bagisu hero ancestor, wanted to marry a Kalenjin girl and so was forced to circumcise.

Yet another legend says the first person to be circumcised was being punished for seducing other people’s wives. Legend states it was decided to partially castrate him by way of circumcision. When he recovered he resumed his former practices and rumour went around that he had become excellent at sex. In order to compete favourably, other men decided to circumcise also.

Now, any Mumasaba boy aged 12 and above can undergo circumcision wherever he wants as long as it is before they make 18 years.

The community largely frowns upon males who even after they clock 18 deliberately avoid being circumcised.

Such males are derisively referred to as basinde, to imply that they are cowards. Even those who opt to be circumcised in health facilities – under anesthesia – are referred to as cowards. Thus many boys in the rural areas prefer to do it the traditional way.

Mushikori says in the beginning the Bamasaba used to circumcise the boys during odd years. However, in 1907, the region was hit by famine because of a prolonged dry season. As is the case today and then, feasting is part and parcel of the circumcision. Therefore a good harvest is an important aspect of Imbalu season.

However, due to the poor crop yield then, the community did not have enough food to feed the tens, or in some cases the hundreds, of people who are part of the entourage that accompanies the boys for circumcision therefore Imbalu did not take place that year.

In1908, against a backdrop of good crops yield, the community had enough food for all. So they (Bamasaba) resumed circumcising. From then on, the large traditional circumcision ceremonies are done mostly during even years.

The circumcision ceremony is preceded by the ‘candidates’ moving around the villages as they dance to kadodi, a rhythmic dream-beat unique to Bugisu meant for the ceremony. They boys wear only shorts with a bare chest. The boys are subjected to hard conditions as one of the ways they can prove that they are men.

To mitigate the cold in the largely hilly and chilly Bugisu while bare chest in the wee hours of the morning as they jog around, dancing. And to mitigate the heat – should their processions be in the afternoon when the sun is intense – they mostly run around bare. The boys usually have flywhisks that they wave as they dance whereas the other people in the processions wave twigs.

In some cases the dancing begins at dawn and goes on until dusk though it is interspersed with breaks during which the boys visit some of their relatives. The relatives prepare meals for the soon to be men to re-energise them before they continue with their processions.

Once they are done with eating, some relatives’ offer the boys live chicken or in some cases goats ‘for their bravery’.

The dances last between one and four weeks, depending on each family’s preference. In some cases, one week to the circumcision date, some families fete the boys to a local drink made of fermented millet, malwa, mixed with hot water. The initiation into drinking implies now that the boys are due for the rite of passage; they can as well do what is considered a preserve of adults.

On circumcision day itself, elders smear the boys to be circumcised with ash. “It makes them look like warriors. It is to psychologically prepare them for the surgeon’s knife,” says Mushikori. Some unconfirmed accounts however, say it is meant to reduce chances of a hemorrhage.

However, all the boys who are due for circumcision are encouraged not to have sex especially weeks before and after circumcision. It is believed that if they have sex prior circumcision, their foreskins harden, which then makes the circumcision more painful. The boys, now ashen, leave their homes for a central circumcision venue.

Once they have undergone the cut, assistants sprinkle a powdered herb called Ingu on the freshly circumcised penises to quicken the healing. In many cases, the wounds reportedly dry in three weeks. After the circumcision, the ‘graduates into manhood’ are feed on Obushera – millet porridge. They are also feed on pumpkins and the chicken they got because they are protein foods.

There have been health concerns raised about using one knife on all boys like it used to be in the past. Inzu yi Bamasaba insists that the traditional circumcision surgeons use a knife strictly on one person. Even then, the knives must be sterilized with hot water before the surgeons can shave off the boys’ foreskins.

Mr Mushikori says Inzi yi Bamasaba also want the traditional surgeons to be licensed by the Local Government Health Departments. That way, they would operate according to a strict health code of conduct. Those who flout the rules would lose their licenses, which would deny them a source of income. Besides, adhering to health standards would clear the anxiety on the minds of many boys lined up for this rite of passage.

It started from Mulungu. On Tuesday, 25^th May 1886, a very excited Kabaka Mwanga suddenly decided to go hippocampus hunting. Unfortunately, the hippo was not sighted and that set Mwanga on a rage spree.

Upon reaching the palace, there were no servants to welcome him as they had all gone to pray. He had noticed that his servants seemed to make prayer and not him their priority.

Bitter, Mwanga sentenced all his Christian servants to death. In particular, they were to be burnt at Namugongo which was the execution yard. However, outside of Namugongo, there would also be other incidences that have been made for historical sites today. The Kabaka and his allies had made it their life’s mission to break and crash religions that didn’t quite bow to theirs.

 Kitebi

One day while returning from Kisubi, Fr. Lourdel Simeon Mapeera was arrested by a Muslim, Hamid Ssekikubo. There was an order to stop any strangers from proceeding to the palace-Lubaga. Mapeera and one Evans were imprisoned in a hut where they suffered from acute malaria with little food. Fortunately, luck sided with them after they were granted bail by Mwanga who offered Lubya to the catholic missionaries to set up a mission station as a gesture of his apology for their detention. Today, a church stands at the spot of their arrest.

Kyamula, Salaama road

This is the spot where Ponsiano Ngondwe, a tax man, was not just beheaded but speared too and left to die. Ponsiano was part of the death march from Munyonyo to Namugongo. However, he was not among the martyrs sentenced to death by Mwanga. He was sneaked into the execution list by the chief executioner Mukajanga who had personal grudges against him for allegedly taxing him two cows as opposed to the lawful one. Down Kyamula is a swamp where the executioners washed the knives after chopping Ponsiano’s corpse. A few meters from the sits a church in which these knives have been kept.

Denis Ssebugwawo’s site Munyonyo

Here, St. Denis Ssebugwawo a page boy of Mwanga was murdered for absenteeism on the fateful day the Kabaka returned from a fruitless hunt. Dennis belonged to the Musu clan, a clan whose major role is to clean royal toilets. It is said that on the 26^th of May, he was tortured and speared by the Kabaka. A raging Mwanga

kept poking Ssebugwawo’s head to until the spear broke in his hand.  He then seized Denis’ lifeless body and him out of his courtyard, into the audience hall, shouting wildly. Quickly his men stripped him naked and hacked him into pieces.