Intellectual Property Rights for Warriors

The pastoralist Karamojong people in the North Eastern region of Uganda are a very unhappy lot - they say that people are impoverishing them by pirating their inventions and technology with impunity.

The Karamojong blacksmiths are particularly annoyed that their special rat traps which used to sell like hot cakes countrywide, including in the capital Kampala, have lost their share of the market because some producers have stolen their technology and fabricated the rat traps...

Just one Karamojong trap is capable of netting as many as 10 rats at a go, while the traps imported from places like India are capable of killing only one rat at a time.

The Karamojong have also earned themselves the reputation of being the first tribe in Uganda to invent the most durable sandals using old tyres from tractors and heavy goods lorries.

These cheap and durable sandals are very popular among Ugandan villagers.

Then there is the unique haircut, nicknamed the Kajong Cut by the barbers in Uganda and which is in great demand among the youth and the not so young, which the Karamojong also 'invented'.

-Ugandan inventors condemn ideas pirates

Related;
The Karamojong;

"If you do not own a cow in Karamoja, you can't be allowed to address a congregation because you are not valued as a person," exclaims Lolem seriously.

The Karamajong accumulate their cattle either through inheritance by patrilineal descent or marriage. When a woman first arrives at her husband's, he is expected to allocate cattle to exclusively feed her and her children and these are to be increased as she bares more children.

It is this act of transferring cattle from the man's to the woman's side that makes her children legitimate members of her husband's lineage. The bride price also comprises entirely of cattle, the other gifts that may be offered are not as significant as the cattle

Before raids became an offence per the government of Uganda, the elders granted young men permission and a formal ritual of blessing was performed. In this way they also accumulated their cattle from raiding their neighbors, even those across the border in Kenya...

"A typical Karamajong dispute begins when someone seizes a stock he thinks are owed to him. If the elders decide on who is to pay and he does not admit the debt then they will order the other to take the stock from him (the adjudged), thus a raid," writes Lucy Mair, an honorary professor of Anthropology for the University of Kent in her book African Societies.

Karamojong Neck rest

Interview with anthropologist Lucy Nair

Best Anthropology Blog- Savage Minds

War and Peace in Africa- Paul Collier