Karamojong exhibit raw culture during 5-day festival

KARAMOJA - In the valley of Mount Kadam, surrounded by mountain ranges, massifs and volcanic plugs, northeast of Uganda and lying 400km from Kampala city, was a rumbling sound of cluttered wrists and stomping feet looming over and above a small town of Nakapiripirit.

In unison, men jumped high up in the sky while the females went about wiggling and wagging their waists in a rather seductive way, whilst heralding what is remaining of their eponymous raw culture.

This was during a five-day rotational annual cultural exhibition, September 8-14, 2025. Held at Nakapiripirit town council Old Primary School, the 10th edition of the cultural event attracted hundreds of Ateker people who straddle across Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan.

The Karamojong are considered Uganda's most distinctive ethnic group found in the country's north-eastern frontier region.

Women adorned themselves with bangles and heavy rolls of colourful neck beads to showcase beauty and prestige. (Courtesy Photos)

Throughout the five days, the cultural exhibition saw men shape their hair into elaborate, feathered coiffures, whereas others were clad in cloaks, hats with ostrich feathers, and wearing metal-disc knife-bracelets as well as carrying spears and small stools.

Women adorned themselves with bangles and heavy rolls of colourful neck beads to showcase beauty and prestige.

"The idea of Karimojong is actually an administrative invention that lumped together several closely related tribes. A shared history began in the 17th century when Jie, a tribe of Ethiopian pastoralists, migrated south to the Kenya-Uganda-South Sudan border region," narrated Andrew Roberts, a renowned historian and guide.

Peter Ichumar, a guide working under Kara-Tunga, also noted that there are currently 9 major sub-clans of the Karamojong people.

"We have the Pian who are found in Nakapiripirit, the Pokot in Amudat, Matheniko and Tepeth in Moroto, Bokora in Napak, Ethur in Abim, Jie in Kotido, Dodoth and Ik in Kaabong, whereas the Napore are found in Karenga," Ichumar explained.

Why the cultural festival

Lawrence Wadada, the Nakapiripirit Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) explained that the 5-day cultural event that rotates in the nine districts of Karamoja was initiated by a group of elders to promote and revamp the positive cultural systems through reuniting the different Ateker communities to embrace peaceful coexistence and engage in commercial activities.

"For long, these communities have lived in fragmentation and have faced challenges of low education levels, cattle rustling, harmful traditional practices and child marriages. Owing to that, there is a need to propagate the positive cultural norms and practices to shape discourses in the development arena through a wider platform such as this cultural festival," Wadada said.

Bradford Ochieng, the deputy chief executive officer of Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), who also hails from the Karamoja region, said the government agency has embarked on aggressively diversifying Uganda's tourism products to include culture and heritage promotion to top the marketing menu for the country's attractions.

"Aside from the rich raw culture, the Karamoja region is endowed with vast plain-lands measuring approximately 27,000 square kilometres. Out of the 194 countries in the world, Karamoja is bigger than 50 of them, making it vast in terms of cultures and minerals," he expressed, inviting more investment in the region.

Gender state minister Peace Mutuuzo pointed out several government plans in the offing to improve Karamoja region in terms of education standards, health and economics.

Meanwhile, despite the pressure from Kampala to join the modern world, many Karamojong still inhabit traditional manyattas- the homesteads built in old style using thorny bush wood to create cellular clusters of compounds that contain granaries, cattle and accommodation for members of the extended family unit.