Naked Repression

Of Uganda's dozen or so major tribes, none is poorer or more primitive than the Karamojong. Living on a 4,000-sq.-mi. stretch of sandy scrubland in the remote northeast, the 280,000 tribesmen know few tools other than their steel-bladed spears, live on little more than a mixture of curdled blood and milk, and have no wealth other than their thirsty herds. But much to the Karamoigongs' distress, all that really seems to disturb the reform-minded regime in far-off Kampala is the fact that they have no clothes.

Karamojong women may sport a beaded apron or cowhide mini-breech-cloth, but the men will suffer nothing more than metal bangles or an eagle's feather in the hair, earrings and a few copper neckbands. Concerned that such casual garb would make Uganda appear backward, the country's ebullient President, General Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin, decreed that the tribesmen should don shirts, trousers and shoes. The order struck the Karamojongs as an act of naked repression. Village chiefs who tried to read Amin's declaration ("Nakedness is neither in your interest nor in the interests of the republic") were shouted down by mobs of starkers tribesmen. Those who actually put on clothes had them torn off their backs by uncompromising sans-culottes and were forced to eat the shreds. Troops had to quell a riot that broke out near Moroto, the dusty district capital, when the edict was proclaimed.

Amin, who seized power from Apolo Milton Obote in a coup last January, personally toured the region to talk up trousers. Some tribesmen heeded his pleas, but a cholera epidemic broke out a few days later, confirming an old tribal suspicion that clothes only hide disease. So far, the only Karamojongs Big Daddy has succeeded in dressing up are the 120 tribesmen who were tried and convicted of rioting at Moroto. They have been sentenced to six months in jail --in prison garb.

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