ABSTRACT

Forsaking any dichotomous or functional concept of ritual, this chapter investigates the use and means of power in the religious terms of the Karamojong. The prayer-leader or the congregation may dramatize the source of rain, the east, or the destination of disease, the west, by pointing arms, stick or spear in the appropriate direction. Raiding is the concern of youth; the ceremony is conducted by the emuron, but he only advises the spy or war-leader. In times of full-scale war, the leaders and the warriors gather into an alomar, which becomes a fighting unit on full alert for the defence of their cattle and people. In Karamojong sacramentality creatures, whether human, animal, vegetable or mineral, symbolize and proclaim Akuju himself. Sacraments are ceremonies sacred to life. They are pointers to human culture being more than craftsmanship of a few individuals, but a shared reality which both incorporates and transcends the individual possessing identity.