Wednesday, 26 March 2014

Science and Uncertainty

My definition of science is : ways to prove what we know and what we are yet to know. Science is used by almost every person in the world to understand how everything works through proofs. However every time something is proved it is not necessarily true. Science 'updates' itself all the time, every time a new theory is made or a new scientific proof is found the old one has to be abandoned. For example people at first thought that the earth was flat and this theory was kept for some time. however after years it was found that the Earth is actually round. But is it really true? there are more proofs for the latter theory than the first one but it is always questionable. science is not fully true but it is all we have to prove whats around us or inside us. So why do we still believe what science teaches us? science is one of the only thing that we can rely on apart from religion to understand the world and although somethings are not understandable and some questions are not yet answered we can still rely on science for the rest. Science answers some questions that other fields cant.

Monday, 3 March 2014

Indigenous knowledge beliefs: the karamojong.

The Karamojong are a tribe in northern Uganda known for their cattle culture and non western style which includes a piece of black and red cloth as a dress and detailed beading worn by women. The Karamojong are very marginalized in Uganda and have a reputation to be a very  violent tribe. although the Ugandan government has sent troops of the military to decrease the viloence by the karamojong people, most people believe that violence is part of their tribe, but is it really? The Karamojong people's livelihood activity is herding livestock and since the climate at Karamoja changes over the year, the karamojong move their livestock to neighboring districts for 4 months a year to search for water for their cattle.  This causes conflicts in the neighboring countries with the karamojong due to their frequent cattle raids. for the past couple of years the climate in Karamoja changed dramatically to either extreme flooding or drought. This caused more movement by the poor Karamoja people to neighboring districts as they now search  not only for water for their cattle but also food and water for themselves. This caused great conflicts with other tribes in the districts around Karamoja and made the karamojong people very defensive and violent as this is their only way to survive with their own tradition.
Splendid Portrait: I took this picture in Moroto district. I beautiful elderly Karamojong woman who insisted  i take a picture. It's afterwards that i realized, i had almost lost a classic portrait.