Humanist

Akuring

Meat is roasted in its own oil, without any additives – no onions, no tomatoes. It has to be a little bit fatty. That oil that comes from the fat of the meat itself is a preservative. The own oil from the cow fat preserves the meat. It is fried until it is dry and then it is kept in its own oil fat – that is how it is preserved.

 When the meat dries, we keep it in a gourd. We have special gourds which can keep the dried meet for over a year. So long as no one tampers with it by touching it with fingers. So when we scoop it, we scoop it with a wooden spoon.

Emuna

 Sun dried meat mixed with cucumber seeds, groundnuts and mixed in honey. The meat is boiled and then after it is dried. After boiling then we pound and then let it dry again.

Then we get the seeds of the cucumber that we roast, pound and mix with the meat. Then we get honey and use it, honey is a preservative. Then we add groundnuts, roasted and pounded; may be sesame.

 Honey is a preservative and it can keep emuna for three to five years. Emuna is also kept in special gourds.

Angodich 

Sorghum meal in ghee – ground sorghum without mixing it with cassava. Or for us now, the ‘modern’ ones, we go for maize ugali. Cook it nicely, it doesn’t have to be hard, it should be a little soft. Then you get the fresh ghee, which has just been boiled, and then you pour it in. And then that is what you eat.

I am telling you if you eat that food you don’t have to eat again the whole day. You only need water. Those are beautiful foods.

This description of the beautiful foods of Karamoja is extracted from a “Policy report on agriculture in Uganda – a cultural anthropological perspective.”

Section 5 of the report: “Resilient ‘African-Ugandan’ food systems” utilises case studies of the Karamoja and Iteso food systems to demonstrate why it is wise for Uganda to promote its own beautiful foods.

As one who is proudly a descendant of Iteso, who are believed descended from Karimojong, and who in turn are believed descended from Abyssinia (present day Ethiopia, I wonder:

• Why aren’t akuring and emuna, “those beautiful foods” of Karamoja, produced and packaged to international standards; and marketed in a similar manner as coffee and tea are marketed? Why don’t we have an akuring marketing board?

• Why is Karamoja and Uganda as a whole not known for its akuring and emuna in a similar way as South Africa is known for its Biltong?

Photo @ borrowed from Alex Valerie Omweru @ Teso Organics.