Schools displace cattle raids as rites of passage

“IF we weren’t here, we would be warriors,” young boys from the Karamajong tribe at Moroto High School explained to Irish Aid workers.

Education has taken them away from a life of killing to one in which they can hope of breaking out of the poverty trap where four out of five people live on less than a dollar a day.

In Karamoja – one of the most dangerous and poorest regions in Africa – cattle raids are a traditional right of passage for young men. Based on a centuries-old spiritual belief that the cow is sacred and all cattle in the world belong to them, armed raids have become a major security issue in this area of north-east Uganda.