Skinned

by Sandra Gray

The traditional dress of a Karimojong woman was constituted of aprons and skirts made from carefully matched goatskins. In 1971, Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda. This year is known as the "The Year of the Skins" (Ekaru ka Amin) in the Karimojong calendar, because one of Amin's first decrees was that the Karimojong should adopt modern Western dress.

His soldiers enforced the decree by beating women they found wearing beads and skins, stripping them in public, shaving their hair, and forcing them, at gunpoint, to burn the skins, melt down their wedding bands, and grind their glass beads into dust. In Nawaikorot, protesters dressed in their ceremonial best were gunned down and buried in a mass grave.

The poem that follows is a retelling of the experiences of a Karimojong woman during a period of personal and cultural devastation. It is dedicated to my Karimojong mother, Lodunge Rebecca, who made the skins, to all of the women who told their stories to me in 1998, and most of all, to Helen Alinga Akol -- who survived.

Sandra Gray
Associate Professor of Anthropology

Poem >>>