A Great Need...

Famine, Disease, and Parasites Prosper

In the matter of physical difficulties, the Karamojong have struggled for many decades (or even more than a century) to provide themselves and their cattle with food. The land is harsh, and the unreliable rains are rarely sufficient to produce a full crop of the grains and vegetables they attempt to grow. Their cattle must be frequently moved as they seek pasture and the nearly non-existent water. Occasionally, the region is hit with total famine, and tens of thousands--even hundreds of thousands--face a death by slow starvation.

The general health of the Karamojong has suffered as their nutritional needs go unmet. Blindness is a familiar member of most communities, and parasites plague many as well. Even the stature of the Karamojong has suffered. The older generations are commonly quite tall, with the younger people being substantially shorter on average, due in large part to less than adequate nutrition.

A Century of Deterioration of Social Order

In the area of social and political pressures, this century has seen an ever-increasing level of violence. Forces from the outside have invaded the relative stability of Karamoja, and generally failed to understand the civil order that was already present. As conformity to foreign ways was forced on the Karamojong, they put up with it for periods of time but occasionally rebelled against it when their very way of life seemed threatened.

The introduction of modern weapons made rebellion against these external forces more and more effective, but these weapons themselves had an effect of changing the internal dynamics of Karamojong life. As the younger warrior class of Karamojong became increasingly the de facto "law" in Karamoja, the elder/wisdom class of Karamojong became less of a stabilizing and effective influence. Eventually, respect for the elders and their traditions has slipped away into a state of near irrelevance.

In the end, all of these pressures taken together produced a bitter fruit of turmoil, enmity, and abandonment of the traditional order, causing a headlong rush into cattle-raiding, general lawlessness and violence, and a prevailing low regard for human life.

Blindness and Hunger of the Spirit

The Karamojong have strong traditions of spiritual awareness, and in the past, these were a dynamic part of social and private life. They believed in an all-powerful, providing god whom they refer to as Akuj. Prayer to this divinity was common, and his works and provision were an accepted part of life.

As Karamojong culture slides into the refuse heap, traditional understanding of a providing God is lost as well. The only provision now available seems to come either from the barrel of a rifle, or from the mind-numbing influence of a barrel of locally brewed "spirits." As physical hunger and physical blindness propagate, so do the spiritual equivalents. As physical parasites deplete their bodies, so spiritual parasites wrack their inner being.

Provision Returns With the Prince of Peace

The Karamojong, as a people, can only come into a place of safety, peace, and health, as individuals come to the place of life more abundant in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. This Jesus is clearly the only Prince of Peace that can and will liberate the Karamojong from the chains of fear and oppression. Just as every other individual on the face of this planet needs His plan of victory over darkness and emptiness, so too, every Karamojong must come to Him to receive everything pertaining to fulness of life.

Some have already come to Him and walked out of the darkness of their difficult circumstances into His fresh air and light. Below, you can read some of their stories:

• Read Nicolina's wonderful testimony of how God intervened in her life in a dramatic way.