An NGO, I think it was Oxfam (usually known as Oxfarm, which seemed more logical on agriculture projects), had set up a good project among the Acholis of Sudan building on the system, widespread in the region, of ‘brigade’ farming. In this system a group of young farmers worked together to cultivate their land. The practical number was around 20 and they would all congregate on one persons land, weed it, or hoe it all day and then in the evening the person they worked for provided the entertainment and food. The next morning, crack of dawn, or even before, they were at the next plot, and so on. This way with their tremendous energy, copious flows of grain-beer (actually fairly nutritious, another problem when the anti-alcohol laws came in) they covered large areas.
Oxfam/Oxfarm’s innovation was to provide oxen, not actually traditional, but which greatly magnified the area covered. There was one snag though. They kept on getting slaughtered by the elders for their next marriage to a young girl. The young men had no say in this (and truth to tell might well have done the same if they were older). So there was simple clash of meaning, as anthropologists might say.
For young Odongo the ox was his tractor; for his uncle Okello it was exactly what was needed to have a good traditional ceremony, and was already in the family so it was free.
Along comes Oxfam’s young agricultural worker who has pondered the situation. He meets the elders and asks them if they have noticed that he injects the oxen every so often, and that the oxen are not actually very productive on the reproductive front. So?, said the elders. Well, said the extension worker, anyone who eats the beef of these animals will probably suffer the same loss of powers.
Problem solved; no animals were slaughtered again!
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