''I spend seven days in each of my three wive''s huts''

Romance in a Manyata (housing estate of 50 or more huts) by the Karimojong in north eastern Uganda has evolved from forced submission into sex to requesting the admired one for snuff.

Intimate smoked out Joseph Logeri, a seasoned polygamist in a Nakapiripirit district, and got him to talk about his love life and how to express devotion the Karimojong way.
 

WHAT IS YOUR MARITAL STATUS?

I have three wives and nine children. We occasionally meet and dine as a family. We need a whole goat and a mountain of millet bread for lunch. This is when we talk about our problems and successes and confide in each other.

My wives are disciplined, like typical Karimojong women. Their duty in the family is to look for or plant food.

They are  responsible for the health of the children, thatching of the huts in the Manyata and smearing the floor with dung to keep dust and jiggers away.
 

HOW DID YOU WIN THEIR HEARTS?

Oh it was not easy as it is today. In the good old days the girl would resist being forced into submission for a whole day. Their aunties taught them to cross their legs tight.

The harder it was the more I and the entire community respected her family. All my women were “clean” (virgins.)

When I succeeded in getting them, neither of them went back to their parents’ homes; they slept in my hut and sent messages back to their parents that they had got a new home.

Things have changed. Like cattle raiding, forcing a woman to have sex has been stopped.
 

WOULD YOU FORCE  YOUR WIVES TO HAVE SEX?

I have never. If one says no I just shift to another wife.

I understand them very well. The first wife is now a consultant on family issues, treating diseases and communicating to the spirits. She has left reproduction to my two other wives.
 

HOW WILL YOUR SONS PROPOSE MARRIAGE?

These are different times. In the past you had to kill a lion or a leopard to be respected in the community.

This changed as the animal population dwindled. Then there was a time when killing a fellow man earned a rank in the public.

In the 1980s when we got AK47s and SMG guns, rustling cattle from another tribe, to pay dowry, was an achievement.

Today the ability to feed, educate and dress the family determines your rank.
 

HOW DO YOUNG PEOPLE SAY ‘I LOVE YOU’ THESE DAYS?

A boy in his teens asks a girl for snuff (pounded tobacco kept in a horn tied in a waist belt).
If the girl smiles and gets the container out, she has agreed to some extent.

You go another step and continue meeting at the bore hole constructed by MTN Marathon money.

The 18 bore holes have become meeting points for lovers and newlywed couples, where they share ideas on how to start and maintain a family.

Other meeting places are the market places where you can buy her waist beads, a wrap or bangles.

There are those bangles made by local black smiths from gold or copper - they are expensive and a girl would know you love her dearly if you bought her one.
 

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The bore hole is one of the best places to meet a girl

HOW DO YOU SHOW A GIRL THAT YOU LOVE HER IN KARAMOJA?

Once a woman is booked by a suitor, she wears a necklace and those with several are public declarations of devotion.

But even those who are still single wear necklaces.

A girl has to make herself pretty with body markings, plait her hair and be social to appeal to a Karimojong man.

They ought to be hard working as well.

Karamoja is not easy to survive in. The rains can refuse to fall. Or when they come they flood the gardens.

The younger boys stand by the pump an help the ones they admire pump water.
 

WHAT IS THE YARDSTICK OF BEAUTY IN KARAMOJA?

Body etchings on the face, chest and arms make a woman very appealing.

This is made better if she can grind and mingle millet bread for the entire family.

Beads are compulsory for the waist, wrists and the neck.

This is made better by her ability to reproduce, dance, sing and cook good food.

Both sexes wear scar tattoos to appeal to the other sex.

Men walk with a hand stool that serves as a pillow at times.
 

IS IT TRUE THE KARAMOJONG MEN HAVE A HERB THAT INCREASES THE SIZE OF THEIR MANHOOD?

No! I have never heard of it. But unlike you town people, we wear sheets and allow our bodies to move freely.
We  do not hide our nakedness. You will see men sit on their three legged stool with their members
touching the ground.

Our girls too move about with their breasts bare.

In the past they just used to cover the navel but Idi Amin threatened to shoot naked persons, so they covered up some more.

DON’T YOU SPEND MORE TIME WITH THE YOUNGER WIFE THAN THE OLDER ONES?

I balance. It all depends on the weather. When we have a drought, I and the young boys walk long distances to Teso, Bugisu or Lango looking for grass and water for the animals.

But when I am at the Manyata I spend seven days in each wife’s hut.

On the day when I am changing huts I go to Nakapiripirit town for shopping, so I arrive with a
kaveera of salt, sugar and cooking oil.
 

IS DOWRY STILL A BIG ISSUE IN KARAMOJA?

It is in form of cows which is a key element in our culture.

We value cows socially and economically. Milk, blood, meat and hides provide food and income. The fat is used as a cosmetic to smoothen the women’s skin.

The urine is used for cleaning utensils. But the bride price for an educated Karimojong girl is not the same as of that one who is illiterate.

Husbands are pay between 10 and 100 animals for a woman.

 If it is so high and the husband fails to clear it, another suitor can pay it.

Then the biological children of the other man, who failed to clear the balance, automatically become children of the man who paid the bride price.

That is our law and we treasure it dearly.