MOROTO: The brightest boys in Uganda's Karamojong tribe are more likely to be given guns to guard their cows than pens to take to school. "A child with brains means he will be good at looking after cattle and searching for food
, so we didn't like to have him in school," said 29-year-old Grace Oyoyo, who had given little thought to her son Moses's education.
"But now he can go in the morning and be finished early," she said. Moses has benefited from a programme launched in 1999 that lures thousands of Karamojong children away from a life of cattle rustling and shoot-outs by giving them food if they turn up for lessons.
As well as filling stomachs in a drought-prone corner of the east African country, the scheme gives youngsters the time to tend their cows after class, fulfilling a tradition sacred to a tribe renowned as fearsome warriors.
More than 21,000 pupils are now enrolled in the government-run Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja (ABEK) scheme and officials say last year's local literacy rate of six per cent has since doubled.
"Before ABEK really gained momentum, it was very rare to see a Karamojong kid in school," said Luke Lokuda, Moroto district's chief administration officer. "Now you find parents volunteering to bring their kids to pre-primary. That was unthinkable only a few years ago."
STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE: Life for the semi-nomadic Karamojong in the mountainous region bordering Kenya and Sudan is harsh, and recent droughts have withered the already sparse vegetation.
Cousins of the Kenyan Masaai, the Karamojong have for centuries wandered the western fork of the Great Rift Valley, settling wherever they find water and grass for their cattle.
Only one per cent have ever used a telephone, according to Ugandan government statistics. The Karamojong remain a warrior tribe, best known to the outside world for their cattle raiding expeditions against neighbouring ethnic groups and clans.
Small arms have proliferated in this lawless region since the bloody rule of the late former dictator Idi Amin in the 1970s. Cattle raiders who previously relied on arrows and spears now use rifles and often leave a trail of dead.
Local officials said 60 settled Karamojong villagers were killed by cattle raiders in mid-March in the Kidepo Valley National Park, although the army put the figure at 12 dead.
"If we want development, we cannot have children trained to be warriors," said Namirembe Bitamazire, Uganda's minister of state for primary education. "The aim of ABEK is to see children becoming doctors, teachers, politicians."
NUMBERS, VOWELS: Insecurity has deterred investors from starting businesses in this region of northeastern Uganda, leading to unemployment, which in turn fuels more armed attacks.
The government says the school feeding programme is part of a wider plan to use education to integrate Karamoja with the rest of Uganda where economic growth is far stronger in urban areas like the capital Kampala.
At the Amiji-miji centre in Moroto, seven-year-old Mary Lochiam is one of 86 children enrolled in the scheme. "School is good because there is enough food and we can talk to the other children," she said as a group of children sitting around her on the floor under a thatched shelter sang songs about numbers and vowels. -Reuters
