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Of War-Leaders and Fire-Makers: A Rejoinder
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2014
Extract
If there is to be a “great Karamoja debate”, then it is necessary to keep in focus the leading issues, with the constraints of historiographical and methodological concerns. Since 1990 publications on the Karamojong have in general taken the line expressed in Mirzeler and Young's abstract: “The transformation of local modes of conflict by large-scale infusion of the AK-47 has had far-reaching effects …”. Against this trend I cite the French critic, Alphonse Karr (1808-1890), “Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose”. My perversity is sustained by studying the Karamojong over 23½ years, living there 1984-86, and returning for fieldwork across Karamoja in 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2005. Taking copies of my monograph to deposit for Karamojong literati to read, the dominant impression was that mobile telephones notwithstanding, this was the same Karamoja. I will not have the last word, but history will.
The issue in Mirzeler's paper above is that “Pastoral Politics” has been mis-represented. Of course any part of an article cannot fully represent the whole, but my book cites Mirzeler no less than 49 times, often giving multiple page references. There is therefore no attempt at disguise or misappropriation: readers are invited and enabled to see for themselves. Where I have fallen down is in five sentences in one chapter, which Allen enjoys for its rare antipathy, where I have inverted commas in manifestly the wrong places. Sadly this is merely where my incompetence got the better of my conscientiousness. These five sentences were my précis, which I knew contained phrases it would have been appropriate to quote, so I marked them with inverted commas with the full intention of checking with the original article. Since I did not have it in my study, my intention was never executed, so now Mirzeler has his reward and I a lifetime's chagrin.
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References
1 Neither Karamoja, the mapped region of north-east Uganda, nor Karamojong, the Eastern Nilotic peoples of its plains, are indigenous words except inasmuch as they have begun to accept being so-called. Among themselves, the primary identities are Dodoso̊, Jie, and Karimojong.
2 Mirzeler, Mustafa and Young, Crawford, “Pastoral Politics in the Northeast Periphery in Uganda: AK-47 as change agent” Journal of Modern African Studies 38(2000), 407CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3 Knighton, Ben, The Vitality of Karamojong Religion: Dying tradition or living faith? (Aldershot, 2005)Google Scholar
4 Allen, Tim, “Northern Uganda Revisited: A review article” Africa 76(2006), 427–436CrossRefGoogle Scholar “He is particularly interesting where he reveals the problems in perceptions of Karamoja as a place of endemic disorder, where elders no longer have authority, and warriors armed with automatic rifles make off with the herds of cattle and join marauding bands under warlords. He argues that access to modern weapons has had no such effects, and provides plenty of evidence that what has become a received wisdom about the Karamoja is wrong, and that traditional order has adapted and even been strengthened.”
5 Mirzeler's Ngakaramojong spellings are not checked with existing literature, e.g. Mirzeler & Young “Pastoral Politics”, 420 ekaworan instead of ekeworon, as Wayland, Edward, “Preliminary Studies of the Tribes of Karamoja” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 61(1931), 221Google Scholar; Lamphear, John, The Traditional History of the Jie (Oxford, 1976), 121Google Scholar; Knighton, Ben, “Christian Enculturation in Karamoja, Uganda” (Ph.D Thesis, University of Durham, 1990), I, 301, II, 55Google Scholar; essegese “Pastoral Politics”, 420, instead of ethegethege as Lamphear, , Traditional History, 176Google Scholar) though it should be esegesege; ekisel instead of ekisil as Seminary, Nadiket, Ngakarimojo-English and English Ngakarimojo Dictionary (Verona, 1986), 161Google Scholar; and Knighton “Enculturation”, I, 336; II, 56; Karamojang in Mirzeler, Mustafa, “Veiled Histories and the Childhood Memories of a Storyteller” PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999) passimGoogle Scholar or Karamojans “Pastoral Politics”, passim instead of Karamojong as in Gulliver, Philip, “The Karamojong Cluster” Africa 22(1952)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Neither “Pastoral Politics” nor “Veiled” lists one of the many dissertations written on the Karamojong, see Knighton, “Enculturation”, II, 164-284 and the only archival document noted in “Pastoral Politics” (428) is a letter by Harry Johnston in “BOCP”, as in Mirzeler, , “Veiled”, 428f.Google Scholar, presumably a Foreign Office Confidential Print.
6 The editor, who gave me 2,000, then 4,000, words to reply, is librarian at Wisconsin-Madison, where Mirzeler was based for seven year's doctoral work, and is acknowledged for commenting on Mirzeler's work, “Veiled”, v, vii.
7 Mirzeler & Young, “Pastoral Politics”, 408-10, 416, 419, 427
8 ibid., 419, 422, 426
9 ibid., 420. It is incredible that such academic-speak could appear on the lips of Nakapor, “who demonstrates his traditional power”, in any language. I still await a response from Mirzeler on this: perhaps it has been channelled in other ways.
10 Charles Ocan, “Pastoralism and Crisis in North-eastern Uganda: Factors that Have Determined Social Change in Karamoja” Paper presented in the Workshop on Pastoralism, Crisis and Transformation in Karamoja, 14—15 August 1992, Moroto, (Kampala, Centre for Basic Research Working Paper no. 20); Charles Ocan, “Pastoral Crisis in North-eastern Uganda: The Changing Significance of Cattle Raids” 14—15 August 1992, Moroto, (Kampala, Working Paper no. 21); Charles Ocan, “Pastoral Crisis and Social Change in Karamoja” in ed. Mamdani, Mahmood and Oloka-Onyango, Joe “Uganda: Studies in Living Conditions, Popular Movements and Constitutionalism” Journal für Entwicklungspolitik (1994), 140Google Scholar uses the term “war-lords” suggesting that he had learned it from colleagues rather than the literature, “The accumulation by the new leaders, the war-lords, is largely through cattle raids.” Ben Okudi, “Causes and Effects of the 1980 Famine in Karamoja” (Kampala, 1992), 16 uses the more appropriate “kraal leader” at the same conference. Mirzeler & Young, “Pastoral Politics”, 419f., 422 do not attempt a theoretical justification of their sixfold use of the term “warlord”, once juxtaposed with “kraal leader”. They might just be adopting the usage of “the new leaders, the war-lords” from Ocan who was also the source for Otim, Peter, “Scarcity and Conflict in Pastoral Areas: A look at the other side of the coin” in Babiker, Mustafa (ed.) Resource Alienation, Militarisation, and Development: Case Studies from East African Drylands (Addis Ababa, 2002), 112, 116Google Scholar. It affected policy papers: “A class or [sic] raiding entrepreneurs commonly [sic] referred to as warlords has emerged who engage in violent raiding on a frequent, well armed and organised basis.” Walker, Robert, “Anti-pastoralism and the growth of poverty and insecurity in Karamoja: Disarmament and development dilemmas” (Kampala, 2002)Google Scholar
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13 “Belief in Guns”
14 Mirzeler, & Young, , “Pastoral Politics”, 407-30, 409, 419f.Google Scholar, 422, 424, 426
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19 On 14 October 2005 I interviewed in Losilang a Joshua Lodoc, born in 1932, son of Penek and grandson of Locam of the Toroi clan at Losilang. He was one of the very few Jie to be schooled at Lotome Mission and be confirmed by the Bishop of the Upper Nile. Mirzeler's “storyteller” (“Veiled”, 1, 289) was Lodoc (if he was 65 in 1997, there is an exact tally), who was reported to be the son of “Penek” and grandson of “Lochiam”, but there is no mention of school in Lotome. Sadly I did not ask Lodoc about fire-makers.
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23 Lamphear, , Traditional History, 171Google Scholar. My book is not aimed at defending Lamphear, when it revises his age-classes for being influenced by Abwor and Turkana, changes the span of a generation-set, and diminishes their historical usefulness.
24 Wayland, Edward, “Preliminary Studies”, 224Google Scholar
25 Bell, W.D.M., The Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter (London, 1958), 63Google Scholar
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28 Gulliver, Pamela & Gulliver, Philip, The Central Nilo-Hamites (London, 1953), 40, 50Google Scholar. The point of a footnote here in my Vitality, 183n4 was not to provide evidence for the text, which was given by oral sources who were sure that the last fire-maker was Lotum and that he died between 1950 and 1956, but to comment on the lack of fire-making, and point to the comparative material. It would be easy for the Gulliver who took this information to confuse Lotum and his father's name, when they had misspelt Dengel, Jimos, and Losilang in the space of nine words.
29 “the interests and rights of those studied should come first…. Consent from subjects does not absolve anthropologists from their obligation to protect research participants as far as possible …” Association of Social Anthropologists “Ethical Guidelines for Good Research Practice” (1999) Available at: http://www.theasa.org/ethics/ethics_guidelines.htm Accessed 2000
30 ibid.
31 ibid.
32 Paul Gallant, personal communication 10 January 2007
33 Joanne D Eisen, personal communication 10 January 2007
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36 Hodgson, Dorothy, “Religious Beliefs and Practices in Uganda” Journal of African History 47(2006), 523Google Scholar
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