Oropom

The Oropom (or Iworopom, Oworopom, Oyoropom, Oropoi) are the aboriginal inhabitants of much of Karamoja in Uganda; their descendants have largely been assimilated into the more recently arrived Teso and Karimojong groups. They are or were found in scattered pockets between the Turkwel River, Chemorongit Mountains, and Mount Elgon. One report indicates that they formerly spoken the unclassified Oropom language.

According to Webster, they originally lived near Mt. Moroto, from which they moved west to the plain between Napak and Elgon before being defeated and scattered by the Karimojong in 1830. According to Wilson, people considering themselves Oropom are (as of 1970) particularly concentrated within the Karamoja area in Matheniko and Jie counties, and to a lesser extent in Bokora; some are also found among the Tepes people of Moroto and the Kadam Mountains. Others are found in Pian county, notably at Lorengedwat. Physically, Wilson claims that they tend to reddish brown skin, "peppercorn hair", slanted eyes, and prominent cheekbones; on this basis, he considers them "Bushmanoid".

They are described in Karimojong oral tradition as the original inhabitants of the area, whom the Karimojong clans of Bokora, Matheniko, and Pian completely defeated in a battle about 1830 around Kacheliba, and then enslaved. Some fled east or south; a few Oropom settlements are claimed to have remained between Kacheliba and Karta as late as 1927. Some areas were unaffected by this battle, and Oropom remained in Pian county between Lolachat and Namalu and in the area between Mount Elgon and Kadam. Didinga traditions apparently record displacing a "red" people, called the Argit, who were skilled in pottery-making.

Oropom traditions as recorded by Wilson claim they at one point occupied a much larger area: the whole Turkana district to a point east of Lake Rudolf called "Malimalte", the Cherangani Mountains eastward to Lake Baringo, much of the Trans-Nzoia district, Mount Elgon, all of the Teso district, and the areas of Didinga and Topossa in Sudan.

Wilson goes into some detail on their traditional culture. They are said to have had well-built houses of three to four rooms (unlike the Karimojong), big gardens, and long-horned cattle. They also had a reputation as good potters, and pottery attributed to them is found all over the area. However, they had no knowledge of iron working, and their tools were Stone Age.

The women wore skin clothing and large earrings, and did not plait their hair; the men wore nothing but a belt covering their penis, and had long pigtails. Both sexes wore many bangles, and covered themselves in a red oil-ochre mixture. They were not circumcised. In 1970, their main mark was a custom of wearing a single cowrie shell attached to a forelock places over the centre of the forehead (for women), or an indented mark in the centre of the forehead (for men.)

Their religious rites are said to have invariably taken place at sunrise, usually on rock outcrops. Some involved animal sacrifices. Some were reserved for elders, while others were open to all. Ritual feasts were held at stone circles.

A group called the Sirikwa, found among the Turkana at Lokitaung, are identified by Wilson with the Oropom, but other sources consider them to have been Kalenjin.

Bibliography

C. A. Turpin. "The occupation of the Turkwell river area by the Karamojong tribe". The Uganda Journal, vol. 12, no. 2, 1948, pp. 161–165.
A. C. A. Wright, "Notes on the Iteso social organisation", The Uganda Journal, vol. 9, no. 2, 1942, p. 60.
J. C. D. Lawrence, "A history of the Teso to 1937", The Uganda Journal, vol. 19, no. 1, 1955.
J. C. D. Lawrence, The Iteso, London, 1957, pp. 8 & 10.
J. G. Wilson. "Preliminary Observations on the Oropom People of Karamoja, their Ethnic Status, Culture, and Postulated Relation to the Peoples of the Late Stone Age." The Uganda Journal, vol. 34, no. 2, 1970. pp. 125–145.
J. B. Webster, "The Iworopom settlers", The Iteso during the Asonya, Nairobi, E. A. P. H., 1973, pp. 28–40.
"Notes on the Geography of Ethnicity in Uganda", B. W. Langlands, Occ. Paper No. 62, Dept. of Geography, Makerere University, Uganda 1975.

External links

Categories: Ethnic groups of Uganda