KARAMOJA MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTRE

This tiny museum is worth a visit. Located at the foot of Mount Moroto (in Moroto...), it is the work of Peter Apaja who has invested a lot of effort in creating it and bringing it to life. Opened in 2008, with the support of the French embassy, it exhibits many typical karamojong objects, such as the small portable stool, theekicolong, giraffe skin sandals (now banned), theathuba, a container in which one drinks milk and cow blood, and so on. Explanations are also given about the Karamojong warriors, the ngijokan, who raided to capture cattle, thus gaining prestige and wealth. All in all, this is a good way to better understand the Karamojong, a Nilotic population from Ethiopia who are related to the Turkana people living across the border in Kenya. Some of the panels are written in French: they deal with archaeological excavations - undertaken around Moroto and having led to the discovery of instruments dating back to the Stone Age - and paleontological research - carried out in the Kamalinga Hills (Mount Napak), rich in fossiliferous sediments - conducted in the region by French teams since the mid-1980s. The very dynamic Peter will be able to provide you with a lot of information about these fossils (including skull fragments fromUgandapithecus major, a great ape who lived 19-20 million years ago, discovered in 2011 by B. Senut and M. Pickford on the slopes of Napak).